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Ha. A. Mehler
How To Write A Best Seller Secrets, Techniques and Success Formulas of Best-Selling Authors
PARI
LIBRARY
Mehler. Ha. A.: How To Write a Best Seller: Secrets, Techniques and Success Formulas of Best-Selling Ha. A. Mehler - l" Edition, Art Universe, Inc. 2001 1st Edition © Copyright 2001 by H. Mehler, Clearwater © Copyright electronic publication by Art Universe, Inc. © Copyright of the English version by Art Universe, Inc.
Authors
All rights reserved, particularly the right of reproduction and distribution. No part of this book may be reproduced, stored, or transmitted in any form or by any means, electronic, microfilm, or photocopying. Cover: C.W. Rohrig Illustrations: Julia Beltz English translation: Demian Lessman English language editor: Kathy Baird ISBN: 0-9719-617-9 Copies of this book can be ordered directly from: Art Universe, Inc. 1371 N. Ave 46 Los Angeles, CA 90041 and www.tomorrowsbestseller.com [email protected] Telephone: 323-258-9483 Fax: 323-257-7370
CONTENTS
CONTENTS How To Write a Best Seller I.
ON THE PROWL FOR Top-NoTCH
WORK
1. The Secret of Quality 2. The Importance of Tradition II.
How
TO ExpAND YOUR VOCABULARY PLAYFULLY
1. Grand Theft Vocabulary in Conversations 2. Lifting Words from Long-Selling and Best-Selling Authors 3. The Author's Weapons: Dictionaries III.
How
TO BUILD HEART-POUNDING SUSPENSE SYSTEMATICALLY
Technique Technique Technique Technique Technique Technique Technique Technique Technique Technique Technique Technique Technique Technique Technique Technique Technique Technique Technique Technique IV.
No.1: No.2: No.3: No.4: No.5: No.6: No.7: No.8: No.9: No. 10: No. 11: No. 12: No. 13: No. 14: No. 15: No. 16: No. 17: No. 18: No. 19: No. 20:
Attention in the Future Two Ideas The Surprise The Mystery The Goal The Unusual Violating Conventions The Hero Hating the Villain Danger Action Opposites Attract Reality Passion Humor Enthusiasm Sex, Crime & Big Heads Isolated Suspense Point of View and Perspective To Be Continued ...
SUSPENSE TECHNIQUES - THE NEXT LEVEL
1. The Most Refined Tricks of Best-Selling Authors 2. The Merchant of Souls 3. Surprise Revisited
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V.
SUCCESS FORMULAS FOR BEST-SELLING AUTHORS 1. 2. 3. 4. 5. 6. 7. 8. 9. 10. 11. 12. 13. 14.
VI.
MEHLER
Intention as a Secret Weapon My Own Personal Credo The Non-Fiction Book, At Your Service How Many English Languages Are There, Anyway? Target Groups and Style Book Titles that Hit the Mark The Art of Research How to Put Order into a Pool of Data How to Create a Well-Conceived Table of Contents The Beginning is Half of the Whole The Scale of Linguistic Skills Pitfalls and Downfalls - and How to Get Around Them The Writing Guild Million-Dollar Formulas for Best Sellers?
CREATIVITY TECHNIQUES: POWER AND MAGIC 1. 2. 3. 4. 5. 6. 7. 8. 9.
The Discovery: Your Own Rhythm Point of View and Perspective Revisited The Importance of Split-Second Decisions The Dynamism and Raw Power of Truth A Code of Ethics for Authors Subjective Suspense Techniques Criticism of the Critics Jack London's Approach The Last Secret of Creativity
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Allow me to begin by briefly introducing myself. I am the proud author of over 100 books. Many of them have ascended to become sellers or best sellers. The response to about 80 percent of my books has been either good or excellent. I write this so that you know you're talking with a hands-on writer and not a theoretician. A writer who was once described by a journalist as "the most successful. .. author of his generation." Permit me to toot my own horn a few more times. Within three years, I had managed to become one of the most sought-after authors available. Here's how I made it. A former television journalist, I eventually resolved to turn my back on that industry and to try my luck as a writer. I began by writing a book titled How To Start Your Own Real Estate Business, which at first glance seems a rather conservative title. But 10 and behold! The book was a smash hit and sold like hotcakes. The publisher could hardly keep up with the reprints. In the end, sales for this book were hailed as "the best sales results of the publishing house!" In other words, I had begun my career with a best seller! I then penned one hit after another, until I was engaged by the largest paperback publisher in Germany and ten additional publishing houses. I wrote numerous books, including the seller Money: More Wealth, Lower Taxes, a book that sold 20,000 copies in the first month alone, How Pros Motivate, How To Make A Fortune In Real Estate, and Self-Made Men and Millionaires. At one point a large business publishing house listed me on an internal, confidential list of its top 5 best-selling authors. I had taken first, second, fourth and fifth ... I could add even more superlatives here, such as the fact that a stack of articles (at least two feet high) has been published about me, the fact that I've become one of the most highly-paid authors in the market and the fact that my books have been translated into many languages. The list goes on and on. But let's stop here. It's getting a little embarrassing, There's only one reason for me to tell you all this; I myself don't appreciate getting "good advice" galore from people who don't practice what they preach. My personal credo, which has served me very well, is that I only lend my ear to those who can get results. So when I proffer my pearls of wisdom on how to write
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a best seller, I am trying to get you to see the successful hands-on writer in me, nothing more. It's time to get down to brass tacks. How do you write a best seller? Let's back up a few steps first and ask ourselves what a best seller is after all. You might not believe it, but apart from the best sellers that are published in the New York Times or in other high-circulation magazines there is no universal definition of this word! But we still ought to try to understand it better. So, what is a best seller? A best seller is, in fact, dependent on at least three factors: 1. The size of the publishing house is vital. A global publisher might begin to feel satisfied once 20,000 copies are sold per year. A mini-publishing house, on the other hand, breaks out the champagne when 2,000 are sold. 2. Furthermore, it makes a difference whether it's a hardcover or a paperback edition. The basic reason for this is the price of the book. In my estimation, a relatively expensive book can be called a seller after it has sold as few as 5,000 copies per year 3. Finally, the time factor is not to be ignored. No matter if a book sells 20,000 copies, if it takes 2000 years to do so, it goes without saying that it's not a best seller.
-
A good rule of thumb might be large publishing house/paperback 20,000 copies sold per year medium-sized publishing house/hardcover 5,000 copies sold per year
= seller =
seller
These might sound like modest sums to your ears, but if you consider that a book with a price tag of $50 "only" sells 5,000 copies, that adds up to sales of $250,000 in one year, a cool quarter million, in other words. That's not chump change. Now let four more years go by and you're already at $1 million in sales. No one would turn up his or her nose at these numbers. In the publishing industry, there's another animal called a long-seller, the continuously successful seller that sells well over a long period of time. License revenues also playa role when evaluating a book. In addition, there's a difference between sellers and best sellers. By the way, one of the world's most famous publishers once set down a rule of thumb for the definition of "success" in publishing. The gentleman in question was the great German publisher Brockhaus, who also had the dubious distinction of being saddled with a notorious anti-seller. It was by the one and only Arthur Schopenhauer, his
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first work, The World As Will And Representation. Ten years after publication, the first run of 800 copies had still not sold out. But Brockhaus was not daunted by the occasional unsuccessful venture. He once stated his formula for success, "We have to accept that, as a rule, we will lose in ten of twenty undertakings, will break even in five, earn decently in four and earn very well in one."! A highly interesting statement that hints at exactly how publishers think. Let's get back to the original question: How do I write a best seller? Is there any know-how on how to write a best seller? How do you really go about it? A direct answer: Of course such know-how exists. But believe it or not, quite a few of our contemporaries consider it to be one of the loftiest virtues not to leak or pass on real know-how. Business people would sooner bite off their own tongues than to pass on business know-how! I myselflive on the other side of the fence. My personal credo is that information and knowledge should be disseminated, that knowledge should be made available to everyone. What good are the most precious pearls of wisdom and the most profound insights if no one knows them? I therefore have the pleasure of informing you in all modesty that you have an extraordinary book in your hands. The goal of this book is to elucidate the know-how and the techniques of best-selling authors. The groundwork for this book was laid in the course of approximately twenty years spent studying history'S most renowned long-selling authors, from the 16th century through the 20th, as well as current top writers whose names appear again and again on "Top 40" best-seller lists. Fundamentally, what I discovered was that all long-selling and best-selling authors use certain techniques repeatedly and consistently in their writing! Do you understand how momentous such a discovery is? It means that there are evidently rules, laws and techniques that enable a writer to captivate the reader's attention and interest as ifby magic! Indeed, it's fascinating to discover that, without exception, all the top authors use techniques that guarantee that readers remain faithful to them. These techniques enthrall and fascinate readers to the point that they can't put the book down, reading night and day until they've finished it. They have no choice but to keep reading, you see. In the interest of conveying the whole truth and nothing but the truth, I can't edge my way around one particular remark: professionalism is never possible without Barbier, Hans D. & Fides Krause-Brewer, 1987. p. 256.
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Die Person hinter dem Produkt. Bonn Bad Godesberg.
HA. A.
MEHLER
working for it! Anyone attempting to tell you any differently is out to hoodwink you. No matter the discoveries you've made, or the insights you may have gained, you have to invest some sweat. And knowing the basic tools of the writing trade is essential. What do I mean by that? Well, let's see if we can find our answer in a topic that has been at the center of growing controversy - non-fiction.
• • • • •
For example, here are a few must-know items: How to systematically extend your vocabulary in a brief period of time. Methods you will need in order to devise a well-conceived table of contents. The ideal title for your book. How to bring order to a pool of data. Success formulas for non-fiction sellers.
I could go on, but let's leave it at that. I prefer to allocate the answers to these questions to the category of craftsmanship, although another writer might refer to them as (literary) trade secrets. Above and beyond these "secrets," an author needs what might be termed creativity techniques. First a frank admission on this subject. The question of how to write best sellers has always interested me. There is of necessity a subjective factor as well; you yourself are an essential variable in the equation. Particularly helpful were certain methods that allowed me to write entirely different books than the "typical" author would have. I discovered them over the years by observing when I wrote best, when the ideas and words literally poured out of me and when I was spurred to top performance. This is how I developed the method I use to write outstanding books. If you will, this book is the result of a "hot" investigation. Questions about the "secret" of best-selling authors pop up again and again. Journalists never stop wondering where top writers get their ideas from. So what is the source of their inspiration? I asked myself how to write a best seller (and not how to write books) simply because I despise mediocrity. The swamp of the commonplace has never interested me. I personally think best-selling authors are not made of the same stuff that engenders mediocrity, acquiescence, ingenuousness, agreement and middle class conformism. On the contrary, I think best-selling authors have completely different characteristics. One of the first hurdles you have to clear is to break out of the commonplace and to allow yourself the luxury of entertaining your own opinions.
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touches on the very topic that has been reserved for the last chapter of this book. By the way, you've probably noticed that these comments are a small preview of what this book has in store for you. I think I can offer you some fascinating adventures. But I'll let you be the judge of that!
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I.
MEHLER
On The Prowl For Top-Notch Work
If you ask yourself what constitutes a really good book, you'll inevitably find yourself faced with the venerable tradition of august philosophers and canny writers asking the same question. So in the interest of intellectual sincerity, I would like to review the conclusions these thinkers came to.
1.
The Secret of Quality
Before I launch into that, however, please allow me to weave an interesting episode into this chapter. My official vocation, to use a bureaucratic term, began in 1976 at ZOF, Europe's largest television station. I had just graduated from college when an incredible opportunity suddenly presented itself - an internship at ZOF. The editor-in-chief informed me in all confidence that there was a chance I could be hired on a permanent basis if I produced "good films" and "quality work." For the next three weeks, I did nothing other than sit in front of a teeny-tiny monitor in a darkened cutting room at ZOF and stare at film footage for eight hours a day. All the while the pressing question ran through my mind, "What is a 'good film'?" Or to be more accurate, "What differentiates a mediocre film from a high-quality product?" I burned with desire to find out what criteria were used to measure quality so that I could produce "good films" myself. You'll be stunned to hear what I discovered! There I was, legs crossed, crouched in front of the aforementioned monitor, staring and gawking until my eyes burned. After two long weeks, I timidly asked one of my co-workers how quality manifests itself. To my surprise, I 'was informed that, in a good film, text and image are so composed as to match each other precisely, i.e. text and image correspond with one another to a T! In all honesty, however, I ought to mention that this isn't necessarily a matter of course. All too often desperate television editors resort to what is called in
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the business a "tapestry." This consists of a background of meaningless, trivial images (a green meadow, for instance) that serves as a backdrop for a report on crop prices. In other words, the use of such a device implies that image and text have no immediate connection to each other. But just a second! Isn't that just a purely formal criterion? Haven't you occasionally seen films in which the text corresponds masterfully to the images and yet you find yourself bored out of your skull? So, anyway, I had to leave the question of what a good film is alone for a while. When I finally got to make my first film, I was still exceedingly anxious that the text and the images "corresponded" exactly. Shortly thereafter, however, I discovered that there were several editors who still didn't like some of my work. I finally realized that liberal journalists principally think films with a conservative slant are c_p - and vice versa. As a matter of fact, this political criterion is flogged to death in television stations. Numerous television editors try to set down what constitutes quality based on content. Some television producers consider a fundamentally conservative attitude to be "good." The liberal staff at another editorial department, on the other hand, will jealously ensure that their "liberal" background and "progressive" views are adequately represented. In this case, "liberal" means "quality." According to official guidelines, of course, all reports must maintain a certain "proportion," a nice buzzword that means providing adequate coverage to opposing political views. But, as we've seen all too often, editorial departments often hold extremely onesided political opinions. You encounter this concept of political weighting and assessment everywhere you turn. This phenomenon isn't just limited to television - radio stations, newspapers and magazines make a huge brouhaha of upholding these kind of (political) criteria. One of the underlying reasons for this is that journalists who have political leanings in one direction or the other know that the only way for them to climb up the journalistic "ladder" is to support a political party. It goes without saying that there are also individuals whose deluded consciences lead them to pass just as biased a judgment over a "good" or a "bad" report. Often, they defend their opinions even more emphatically and bitterly. This perverts the concept of quality. Political touchstones for quality are obviously worthless, even if you can't be so naive as to assume that they don't exist in reality. It doesn't take a philosopher or even particularly profound insight to realize that such criteria are for the birds. So there I was with all my newfound
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knowledge. I unearthed who was wallowing in what party so that I could be sure of not slipping up on some small, unnoticed spot. I did not want to land with my foot firmly planted in my mouth. The only problem was that I had still not answered my question, "What is a 'good film'?" Undaunted, I continued investigating, only to discover - you won't believe it! - that your local television producers themselves have no idea what "good work" is! It's incredible, but with the exception of a few formal criteria, such as: -
you must have a good speaking voice (which is why actors are usually hired on at television studios) you must cut cleanly so that a take fits seamlessly and logically with the next one (which is why you have cutters) you must have technically flawless sound (which is why you have sound engineers)
... with the exception of these formal criteria, there are no objective touchstones. Bizarre, isn't it? Granted, there are some clumsy tips and dodges, thrown together helterskelter, but that's about it. Today's television also demonstrates that the concept of quality is in a sorry state indeed. Why? They don't know any better! No one dares to judge "objectively." The legendary Nielsen ratings are not worth their salt as touchstones either, since they're only able to confirm or belie an opinion after the fact. To bring this story to its conclusion, in the course of the following four years I produced approximately 200 films for television, developing in the process my "own style," as it is so blandly called. I did not learn professionalism in the television business, however. Did you know that you can ruffle the feathers of the most experienced, the most jaded pros out there by very innocently asking them the question "What is a 'good film' or a 'good book'?" You will discover that there are no objective criteria. The authorities of yesteryear are as dead as doornails and the experts of today patently derive great pleasure from contradicting one another. What a farce! But there evidently are "good books" and "good films." So it follows that there ought to be reliable techniques and tried-and-true know-how for creating them. I can tell you this much in advance: There is know-how. There is no question whatsoever that you can define quality. And there are highly
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controversial techniques dation for a best seller.
2.
WORK
on how to attain quality and thus lay a sound foun-
The Importance of Tradition
While searching for high-quality works, I stumbled over venerated poets and thinkers who had pithily delineated what "quality" is and what makes a book "good." Consider the following quotation impartially without automatically getting confused by the style. "If a painter were willing to join a horse's neck to a human head and spread on multicolored feathers, with different parts of the body brought in from anywhere and everywhere, so that what starts out above as a beautiful woman ends up horribly as a black fish, could you my friends, if you had been admitted to the spectacle, hold back your laughter? In short, let the work be anything you like, but let it at least be one single thing?"
.
The author of this quotation states that a work must be one single thing. This statement is 2000 years old! The content is brilliant, even though the cramped style sometimes gets in the way of understanding it (which might be a result of the translation). This quotation is from Ars Poetica, literally, "The Art of Poetry," a small modest work by the Roman poet Quintus Horatius Flaccus, generally shortened to Horace. It was over two thousand years ago that he attempted to determine the essence of poetry, or rather, to investigate what a "good book" is. Fascinating, isn't it? Please allow me to spare you the effort of reading the entire book. Let's sum up what demands this great poet places upon the writer and the conclusions he comes to before we comment on them. In Ars Poetica, Horace comes to the following remarkable conclusions: •
Quality implies that a harmonic whole is visible and that the product is one single thing. Don't create a figure with the head of a beautiful woman and the neck of a horse, leading into the ruffled body of a bird and ending in the tail of a fish - an example of an entirely disorderly, chaotic work.
2 Horace. Ars Poetica. In Horace for Students of Literature: The "Ars Poetica" and its Tradition. Gainesville. 1995. Ed. and trans. O. B. Hardison, Jr., and Leon Golden.
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• • • •
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In order to create a perfect work of art, you need to have mastered the different metrical (rhythmical) forms. It's not only important to entertain your audience and the readers, but also to instruct them. Homer is without a doubt the greatest poet and, as such, should be imitated. Take the audience into consideration.
It's incredibly interesting that some of these demands are wholly legitimate, whereas others are way off in left field! In today's world, "imitating Homer" could never act as a valid yardstick of whether a book is "good" or not. This requirement is so palpably wrong that the temptation arises just to toss the entire Ars Poetica into a comer. After all, a poet who serves up advice such as this can't be really worth his salt, right? There's no question that this tip is of no use whatsoever in modem times. But let's take an unbiased look at the other criteria - if you were to analyze a sample of 100 recognized best-selling authors taken at random, you would discover that 95 of them have actually written works that are "harmonic" and "one single thing!" It's intriguing that Horace had indeed struck gold, revealing know-how that continues to be applicable. It's also advantageous to be well versed in the different metrical (rhythmic) forms. It's a well-known fact that pros can hold their own in formal terms. So this commandment issued by Horace is also correct. Whether or not you ought to instruct your audience is debatable. That you have to take your readers into account, at least to a certain extent, is no doubt right. As an author, you write for others, not for yourself. Of course there are opposing views on this point; but only because it's considered a sign of sophistication to argue over and talk the dickens out of everything. People tend to hide their failures behind the impenetrable veil of "no one understands" them. Don't ever take up that argument. There are no two ways about it. You write for others! I have personally found it to be the greatest help to have other people read a new book before it is published, or even before the editors catch a glimpse of it. That way I can test whether the reader is really engrossed in the book, whether he or she actually devours it, cover and all. Granted, I make use of special suspense techniques, which I'll discuss in more detail in the next chapter, but I still have to know whether I have implemented and applied these techniques properly. Is the reader sitting there, jaw dropped to the floor, unable to put the
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book down? If so - outstanding! One of my wife's friends told me the other day that she had just read one of my new works and that she had chased her husband out of the room when he asked her a question. She was so engrossed and absorbed in reading my book that she couldn't stop reading. I had evidently done something right. So, working with the audience is one of my priorities. I have developed a feel for literary resonance and write for others, not for myself. Believe it or not, Horace was right about this as well. The salient point is, then, to learn from the pros of past centuries and millennia. Of course, you have to differentiate. Distinguish between historically out-moded demands like "imitate Homer," dated opinions, subjective beliefs, didactic mandates such as "instruct the audience" and truly applicable, priceless know-how. How are you going to write a "good" book if you don't hang on every word the most successful writers in history have had to say on the subject? Don't be shy about learning from geniuses. If we were to rephrase Horace's commandments for modern ears, they would sound something like this: • •
Take the target group you write for into account and Make sure that you know how to ply your craft properly and have mastered as many literary techniques as possible.
This doesn't tell you how to build suspense, but it's a beginning. Let's tarry a little longer among the "ancients." We can learn a lot from them. Aristotle, the brilliant Greek philosopher, also wrote a treatise on poetics. To put it more causally, he attempted to discover what makes a work a best seller. He did not specifically investigate what makes a book "good." He pondered what makes theater and poetry "good." But it was a hunt for top-notch works, for quality. Aristotle placed a slew of demands upon the artist, of which some are, quite frankly, moronic. (Sorry, Professor!) But others are amazingly astute. His statement that poetry must imitate earlier works is moronic and jarringly wrong. It goes without saying that poetry can be freely and newly created in its entirety. Aristotle also delineated that comedy must portray the common people. Tragedy, on the other hand, was the exclusive province of the nobility. Excusez-moi, but these statements can only be understood in the context of the era in which they were written. As techniques or methods they're worthless. On the other hand, Aristotle also states that a poet should aim to stir up passions.
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He mentions emotions such as sympathy, fear, anger, terror and horror - all of which are elements that we most certainly find in modern best sellers. He already knew that you can reverse a plot (the Greeks called this "peri petie") and worked out a plethora of other highly interesting details which you can't help but admire. You'll have to pardon my casual way of making the point, but I make no secret of my personal credo in this regard. If you can't liberate yourself from so-called authorities and judge what they say for yourself, you'll be a flop as a writer. I have the utmost respect for Aristotle, even if I have to chuckle over some of his pronouncements. I could continue pumping you full of my knowledge of Aristotle and prove that I was a good little student who earned his degree in German Literature. But it wouldn't really contribute much to answering the question how do I write a best seller? Nevertheless, allow me to rummage about in the past a little longer and dig up a few more clues as to what makes a book "good." Continuing our stroll through history, we encounter (in the 3rd century) Neoptolemos of Parion, a resoundingly dull poet and theoretician whom we can immediately dismiss. The same goes for Joachim von Watt (16th century), the author of a "humanist poetry" and a humanist literary critic by the name of Scaliger, who presented a new systematic poetics in 1561 in which he proclaimed that he had found the Philosopher's Stone. Another name worth mentioning is Sir Philip Sidney, the English poet who, in 1595, wrote Defence of Poesy (quite right, "poesy" with an "sy" at the end) in which he insisted, in the grand old tradition, that true poetry should be instructive. A little further down the road, Martin Optiz tried his hand at devising a stamp of quality for poetry. In 1624, he authored The Book of German Poetry, an important milestone in the development of literary and poetical theory. Basing his conclusions on ancient Greek and Roman literary theory, as well as on Italian, French and Dutch theory, he called for the creation of a German poetics that would be equal to its foreign role models. His rules enjoyed universal acceptance for nearly a century. He counseled poets to study ancient poetry in particular and to pay special attention to mastering forms - advice no one would have any objections to. He also demanded that the language used be free of difficult words and stipulated that only trochees (i.e., a particular rhythmic foot) be used. Although he was personally awarded the laureate crown by the emperor, it is obvious that these last two requirements are
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points out, with a wagging finger, that tragedy should only portray the nobility, and so forth. Oh, well, let's forgive him his foolishness. A figure we cannot forgive, however, is Johann Cristoph Gottsched (17001766) who embodied yet another of the milestones in the series of attempts to come to formal terms with the essence of quality. However, Gottsched was a professor who should have kept his lip buttoned, because the plays he personally penned were abysmal. Nevertheless, he had to have his say, so he wrote A Critical Approach to Poetry in 1730, positioning himself as the foremost authority on poetics in the era of the Enlightenment. His dictates were so fantastically myopic in nature that they hastened the degeneration of literary tradition since Aristotle. Let's put him out of our minds and continue in our search for more experts. Noble names such as Friedrich Schiller, Bert Brecht and Friedrich Diirrenmatt adorn the list ofliterati who strove to set the forms of drama, literature and art in theoretical concrete. I don't believe that these attempts should be criticized to the extent that they represent the personal creeds of their architects; however, these efforts were at least partially aimed at formally and permanently codifying the essence of art and the essence of quality. In other words, these critics went about their work with the intention that their literary and artistic authority survive for centuries, even millennia. All of these doctrines failed to a certain extent. Despite the fact that they could have learned from these earlier, abortive efforts, theoreticians continued experimenting, particularly in Germany. One such theoretician, Wolfgang Kayser, a professor of German literature, authored a truly ponderous tome entitled The Linguistic Artifact. This virtually unreadable work brings together all manner of formal criteria with the meticulousness of a 12th century monk. Emil Staiger, another professor of German literature, modestly restricted the discussion laid out in his opulent opus The Basic Concepts of Poetry to delineating the exact parameters of lyrical, epic and dramatic verse. In doing so, he crept out onto such dangerously thin ice that he fell in with elegant regularity. Undaunted, he fought his way to his feet again and undertook further attempts to turn formal, definitive pirouettes, only to crash land again and again. His statements are idiotic, to put it mildly, and if you wish to do yourself a particular favor, you would do well to avoid reading this celebrated "great literatus." We could lie in wait for more scholarly figures and ambush them, but that wouldn't be entirely fair of us. Some ofthese opinions were upheld for as long as ten years before being forced into oblivion by a new trend that took over where the old "spirit of the age" left off. In all probability, the history of
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literary criticism, both medieval and contemporary, will continue along this path for the time being. One slick theory will replace the next and there will be few useful criteria left over. It's a shameful waste of time, but so be it. One basic guideline, however, is that all formal criteria which have been raised to the level of binding requirements must be discarded. This does not mean that a writer should refrain from learning formal techniques. Composers have to be virtuosos in handling the tools of their trade as well. Formal postulates, however, should not be generalized, nor should an ideology be tailored to suit them. It's outrageous to proclaim that only a play comprising five acts is "art" and exhibits "quality." Claims of absolute truth have become quite a rarity, since the variety of art and literature has grown to such unmanageable proportions that it's foolhardy to stand up like a prophet and proclaim "the truth." In previous eras, a "poetics" managed to hold up for several centuries before being replaced by a new theory. Thankfully, this is not possible these days. Thus, we have to struggle with an entirely different problem now - defining quality. It is simply bizarre, but there really isn't any codified material that describes the author's "profession." This is partly due to the fact that the drive to attain quality is no longer considered to be fundamental in a society with a value system that has been so muddled and befuddled. There are even some bemused minds that maintain that the drive to attain quality is pathological! If you were to try to define quality today, you would first have to underscore the fact that, looking back at centuries gone by, there are evidently numerous definitions of quality. There are innumerable conceptions of what quality is. This shouldn't tempt you to dismiss your own personal subjective definition of quality out of hand. What do [understand by this term? It's time to let the cat out of the bag.
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II. How To Expand Your Vocabulary Playfully
It's time to close these moldy books and change our style and pace. The mustiness of past millennia can cloud our comprehension of which methods to employ and how to go about the business of writing a best seller. Below I'll tell you how I went about this - possessed by the burning desire to write a top-notch book. Make the decision that you will become a best-selling author. How should you go about it? We could start a long list of criteria and all sorts of wild speculations as to what makes a book "good" and what makes a writer an artist. But all the pundits are unanimous on one thing - a professional has an extensive vocabulary and an impressive lexical arsenal at his beck and call. Notes are to the musician as words are to the pen-pusher. Words are the tools of the writing trade. So before acquainting you with the secrets of the art of creating suspense, I would like to introduce the fundamental tools of the trade to you, the relevance of which cannot be overemphasized. I hold some surprises in store for you. There are methods and approaches to learning words so quickly and rapidly that the learning is pure pleasure. "Actors are so lucky!" is a lament I've often heard from writers. An actor has recourse to gestures, mimicry and language, can modulate words, can chew on them, can growl like a bear or chirp like a cricket. In a nutshell, actors can avail themselves of methods and means that are simply out of the reach of the wordsmith or writer. Only the poor poet has as her sole tool the naked word, and it is required of her that she display as much virtuosity with this lone tool as a concert pianist does with a Steinway. There's no disputing that the word is the tool the writer relies on. Experts use this touchstone to determine whether they are dealing with a professional, someone who can juggle words easily, who can conjure up words like rabbits out of a top hat, or whether they are dealing with a pen-pusher of doubtful talent, one who is ecstatic when he, by some whim of Fortuna, happens to stumble over a wellturned phrase he can use. So cultivate your language and learn new words constantly - new words in English, as if you were trying to learn a foreign language! Thankfully, there are several outstanding methods for learning words that
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are also loads of fun. First of all, you have to understand that, without the tools of your trade, without words, you are mute. You are a bird that can't sing. With the aid of words, you can transmit ideas, thoughts and representations. Your imagination, which might potentially enable you to create heretofore-unseen galaxies from nothing, can only be of use to you to the extent that you can formulate, communicate and perform gymnastics with words. Telepathy may very well be an extraordinarily fascinating matter, but it puts the writer out of work. Her medium is language and the written word. Imagination may be the rider, but its horse is language. And the most talented jockey is helpless and useless without a horse. How can you expand your vocabulary rapidly?
1.
Grand Theft Vocabulary in Conversations
Begin by learning the art of listening and immediately absorbing words. Were you aware that Luther based his literary career on having "read the common people's lips." So can you, too, make a game out of listening closely, snapping up new words and then using them at the very next opportunity. Listen carefully for every unfamiliar word. For example, let's assume that you happen to run into your neighbor and that your conversation turns to an article in the local paper about a thief who broke into a house two streets down. Your neighbor mentions this incident and informs you that she considers the aforementioned thief to be nothing more than a common footpad and a rogue, although he fancies himself a swashbuckler. Fantastic! This is a wonderful opportunity to steal words. Your neighbor has used the words "footpad" and "swashbuckler." Perhaps you already know these words - in fact, you most probably do know them. The only thing is that you have never used these words yourself. On the sly, like a thief, you now incorporate these words into your lexical repertoire; you adopt these words as part of your vocabulary and use them immediately. Do you see? You perk up your ears and pilfer words directly from the lips of others. I promise you that your life will become more exciting and colorful than it ever has been. You will be soaking up words like a sponge and using them at the next best opportunity. Do you know how cinematographers operate? They slice their piece of
21
How To EXPAND
YOUR VOCABULARY
PLAYFULLY
reality out for themselves. By this I mean that they continually look through an imaginary camera lens, not seeing the world as it is, but rather as it could be portrayed on the silver screen. For example, if they take a stroll down a boulevard lined with maple trees, they see in their mind's eye a continuous flow of potential, interesting perspectives that they could capture on celluloid - instead of perceiving the trees in detail. Slice a piece of reality for yourself. Don't only pay attention to what people say, how large their ears are or the shape of their legs, but pay particular attention to which words they use. You'll make the most fascinating discoveries and will have a whole new take on language. Another discovery awaiting you is that there are numerous "languages." There are languages only spoken by senior citizens, just as there are twenty-something languages. When I was younger, it was popular to express your approval by saying, "Far out, man!" Do you know how teenagers express their approval nowadays? They say, "How sweet, my posse!" - with a straight face, of course. By all means, steal these expressions too. Don't be shy or inhibited. Learn all the languages you can, the teenage slang as well as scientific jargon. Chat like a Californian. Drawl like a Texan. Learn "hardboiled" slang, and refer to "grands" or "k's" if you mean a thousand dollar bill. Wallow in academic jargon as well. Cast off any and every arrogance you might have regarding language. Languages and words are colorful and diverse. There is an overpowering and fascinating wealth of them. Don't be afraid to use gutter slang. You're a writer, not a gradeschool teacher! Soak up words like a sponge. Perk up your ears in every conversation, snap up crisp new bits of language, digest them and use, use these words! You'll be identified as a writer once the "image" is right and you're using interesting words and unusual expressions, when your tongue has become agile enough to use them appropriately, in other words. You'll also become fantastically extroverted. So please, before you continue reading, snag yourself someone to talk to, hang on her every word, snap up a few words that you have never used before and use them in that very conversation. In so doing, you continuously add new words to your vocabulary. This method has a highly valuable added advantage of making it possible to create interesting and realistic characters, another bread-and-butter tool of the writer's trade. Nothing puts flesh and bones on characters and types as clearly and conclusively as the right vocabulary. Granted, you can mark a character by means of his peppermint aroma, an uncontrolled tic at the comer of his mouth
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or an enormous aquiline nose. But, I can't stress it enough, the most sure-fire method for building characterization is language. Characters and types exist not only in plays and novels, but also in real life. If you actively register the language and vocabulary of a single person at the source, that's half the battle, sometimes even the whole war, when it comes to putting the role of a character on paper. Do you understand? The painstaking observation of language also helps you to recognize characters and record peculiarities. It's now in your own best interest to continue learning words' systematically and regularly. Set a goal for yourself. How many words do you want to assimilate each day? Resolve to learn, for example, ten words a day.
2.
Lifting Words from Long-Selling and Best-Selling Authors
You now have access to an approach that allows you to learn new words every day, quickly, easily and effortlessly. I also practice another method, elegantly simple, but a good way to learn words equally rapidly and efficiently while pursuing my favorite hobby. Do you like to read? Every author should answer this question with a resounding "yes!" Reading books is an ideal word-gathering method. It is simple, yet entertaining and very, very effective. So, read books actively. A good way not to read books from here on out is the way most people watch TV, sucked in, hypnotized and utterly passive. As you read, you should be chasing words like a bloodhound after game - words you don't know or don't use. It's an excellent idea to underline the words that you haven't yet incorporated into your active lexical storehouse. Get a proper notebook for vocabulary. Subdivide each page into four columns and label them "Nouns, Verbs, Adjectives and Adverbs," for instance. Use this method to learn from authors systematically. You'll be astounded to discover how wide-ranging a vocabulary true professionals have. The most resourceful writers and the wittiest authors will be at your beck and call. You should constantly challenge yourself. Never forget to ask yourself as you begin each new chapter, "How many words can I filch?" You'll be stunned to realize how swiftly you can expand your vocabulary with this method. The best teachers are at your service day and night. Of course, you should not succumb to hero-worship and let these wily authors wrap you around their little fingers. Analyze and dissect them, these
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How To EXPAND
YOUR VOCABULARY
PLAYFULLY
paragons of the literary arts. Take a good look at their internal organs, their veins, their arteries and nerve endings - in other words: their vocabulary! Without words these hallowed heroes of history would not be worth a fig. They depended upon the very tools of the trade which you must use in building your work and your reputation. You would be well advised to examine every miniscule detail of their work under a very powerful microscope. Let's consider a specific example, an excerpt from a story by Stefan Zweig, Castellio Against Calvin. Zweig was highly skilled in verbal acrobatics. Read the excerpt. I promise you that you will encounter some strange, delicate and delicious words that you have probably never used. Perform the experiment now - read actively - on the prowl for new words.
STEFAN ZWEIG, CASTELLIO AGAINST CALVIN "... one need merely glance at his countenance toforesee that this doctrine would be harsher, more morose and oppressive, than any previous exegesis of Christianity. Calvin's face resembled one of those lonely, remote, rocky landscapes in the Alps, which may wear the expression of divinity, but about which there is nothing human. Whatever makes our life fruitful, joyful, flowerlike, warm, and sensual (in the good meaning of that misused term), is lacking in this unkind, unsociable, timeless visage of the ascetic. Calvin's long, oval face is harsh and angular, gloomy and inharmonious. The forehead is narrow and severe above deep-set eyes which glimmer like hot coals; the hooked nose masterfully projects from between sunken cheeks; the thin-lipped mouth rarely smiles." 3 May I reveal to you which words I pilfered from this text? I stole the following words: • Countenance (=face) - words you don't know have to be looked up in a good dictionary. • Flowerlike • Visage • Inharmonious • Glimmer Zweig, Stefan. Cedar Paul.
J
24
The Right to Heresy: Castellio Against Calvin. New York.
1936.
Transl.
by Eden and
HA. A.
MEHLER
• Hooked • Masterfully You see that I have learned seven, count 'em, seven words. Strangely enough, I never use these words. I know them, but I don't use them. Do you see what I mean? You will strike gold using this method. A bloodless vocabulary won't tickle anyone's fancy, especially a meatless and inharmonious vocabulary, as Stefan Zweig might have put it. To continue with our demonstration of method No.2 ... You've now learned seven new words. Perhaps you knew some of them, but you've never really put them to work for you. Pick up a vocabulary notebook and set it up to look something like this:
..Adje.ctio-e.s
,Ado-ems
II\OSteAk-IJ.~~« 1k-~lI1eAW2e. il\llQA.lt\Dl\io!J.S 11lool?ed.
~
MolJ.l'S
a ~iII\II\eA
COlJ.l\te.KQI\ee. otscoe
Believe it or not, I started out doing this. I knew that one of the most recognizable hallmarks of a professional is the extent of his vocabulary. Even representatives of the noble writing guild who have amassed an impressive treasure trove of nouns, for example, are literally poor as paupers in terms of verbs. You are the one who must locate the chinks in your linguistic armor and mend them. Reach out to the words the masters offer up and grasp them with both hands. Use them in conversations with friends and acquaintances until you're positive that you have incorporated them into your active vocabulary. I assure you that you'll advance by leaps and bounds. Do you know how Jack London, the most famous author of his time, built his vocabulary?
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How To EXPAND
YOUR VOCABULARY
PLAYFULLY
You may not believe what you read here, but this author, once the most successful writer on the planet, memorized words like a schoolboy! Irving Stone, arguably London's most definitive biographer, disclosed some of the author's most intimate working secrets. "To Jack one of the greatest things in the world was words, beautiful words, musical words, strong and sharp and incisive words. He read the heavy and learned tomes always with a dictionary at hand, wrote down words on sheets of paper and stuck the sheets into the crack between the wood and mirror of his bureau where he could memorize them while he shaved and dressed; he strung lists of them on a clothesline with clothespins so that every time he looked up or crossed the room he could see the new words and their meanings. He carried lists of them in every pocket, read them while he walked to the library... "4 How extraordinary! This man, this literary giant, studied vocabulary like a day pupil. And, in doing so, he acquired a vocabulary that can only be described as breathtaking. It stands repeating that he sought the most juicy lexical morsels and the most powerful idioms. Every line of the quotation above is worth its weight in gold for up-and-coming writers. Jack London also studied the specialized vocabularies of the characters he intended to write about. In other words, he devoted himself to an exact study of the linguistic habits of target groups, to couch it in sociological terms, and worked his magic purely on the merits of a realistic atmosphere that attracted readers who lived in the real world. So, you see, you will be in the very best of company if you go about systematically memorizing words. They are the tools of your trade. You might also ask which books you should consult to steal your words. What type of literature do I recommend reading? Giving a programmatic, schematic answer to this question does involve some risk. Nevertheless, I will venture out onto a well-worn literary limb and advise you to study everything that has earned a place on the best-seller lists of the past and present. Read everything. You'll notice that real literature is a more fertile hunting ground than pulp fiction. But while you're at it, be sure to pick up what are often referred to as "entertainment" novels with a good sales record. The authors must be doing something right, wouldn't you agree? Don't allow 4
Stone,
p 106.
26
Irving.
Jack London, Sailor on Horseback: A Biography by Irving Stone. New York.
1978.
HA. A.
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yourself to be distracted by the envy of others who have foolishly left insufficient time in their schedules to properly pursue this delicious pastime. Read yesterday's long-sellers and today's best sellers. "World literature" belongs to this group of must-reads as well, German, French, English and Italian literature from the 16th to the 21 st century. Always read actively, never like a mesmerized couch potato. So start reading systematically and don't be discouraged by my terse recommendation to read and study several hundred books. Imagine yourself learning a paltry ten new words every day. In a year, you'll have learned 3,650 new words. In a short period of time, then, you'll be in possession of a vocabulary that exceeds that of your average Joe by leaps and bounds. The salient point here is to learn constantly and continuously, specifically, to concentrate on expanding your vocabulary. It's amazing how polished and professional you will become in terms of the basic tools of the trade, words.
3.
The Author's Weapons: Dictionaries
I can imagine that you must be trembling with anticipation about learning how to conjure up suspense. But it would be remiss of me to give short shrift to the basic tools of the trade. So be patient just a little while longer. As you will recall, Horace counseled writers to choose words insightfully. This advice is correct, although in order to be in a position to do so, you have to have words and an appropriate vocabulary at your disposal. Horace omitted this (first) step. Another way to shop for high-quality, fecund vocabulary is, of course, to consult a reputable dictionary. Even master writers are not ashamed to refer to dictionaries. I should mention that a lot of writing gurus don't know that there are such things as rhyming dictionaries, which have the potential to be extraordinarily useful when you consider the time and energy poets expend looking for a rhyme for a particular word. In truth, there's no viable reason under the sun why you should not consult dictionaries. Mindlessly worshipping the cult of imagination is a grave error. Accomplished professional writers and other artists, privately acknowledge that 95 percent of "art" is craftsmanship. Idealizing the craft of writing leads to overemphasizing concepts such as "genius" and waiting for "inspiration."
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How To EXPAND
YOUR VOCABULARY
PLAYFULLY
This is the idle daydream of the "kiss of the Muse," who breathes a tender kiss on the nape of the writer's neck, bringing about an irresistible urge to write, like some designer creativity drug. But frankly, the only woman who ever tiptoed up behind me and surprised me with a kiss was my wife, who subsequently asked me to see to some household chore. Don't wait for a Muse to kiss you, use dictionaries! There are some excellent thesauri which are handy instant vocabulary expanders. Imagine that you're confronted with the dilemma of how to describe a "beautiful" woman. You see, "beautiful" is a depressingly bland and stale word. One look in a thesaurus reveals that, instead of "beautiful," you could say stunning, comely, statuesque, beauteous, pulchritudinous, lovely, photogenic, stately or Junoesque. There is no shortage of words; on the contrary, there appears to be an excess. Delve into this wealth. Feel free to scoop up all the words you will ever need from this lexical treasure chest! Arm yourself with "regular" dictionaries as well. Don't turn your nose up at high-school reference works. They present complex topics in an uncomplicated way, which can be a blessing to a busy writer. And, last but not least, work with picture dictionaries. Imagine that you are grappling with a scene in a story which is set in the Middle Ages. The main character is a knight whose heroic escapades take place in a castle. Where will you, the writer, turn to pilfer the necessary technical terms? From a picture dictionary, of course. A good picture dictionary will contain a topic-by-topic run-down on the surroundings in which your action takes place. You will save tons of time not having to study narrative from fifty books in order to assemble the necessary (highly specialized) vocabulary tool kit. You study the two or three picture dictionary pages on medieval castles and fifteen minutes later you're ready to roll. "Greaves clattering, the knight rides his prancing steed into the bailey. On the left he spots a draw-well and turns to face the keep on the right. He glances suspiciously up at the merlons and crenels along the palisades before snapping the visor down on his helmet and marches towards the gate of the keep, the tenebrous, mysterious edges of which are barely visible in the shadow of the corner tower." Where do you think I got these words? A good picture dictionary, of course! So work with dictionaries. If you can afford it, buy yourself an encyclopedia. Experts recommend the "Encyclopedia Britannica." Make sure that you also have several dictionaries
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in other languages - at the very least, German, French, Spanish and Italian since it's inevitable that the occasional Herr or Monsieur might wish to speak in your stories. Arm yourself to the teeth with dictionaries. They're the daily tools of your trade. Just as a blacksmith can't work without a hammer and an anvil, so you must have dictionaries. And then have at it!
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III. How To Build Heart-Pounding Suspense Systematically
Finally! Finally you'll discover what suspense really is and how to build it to a fever pitch, how to grab the reader's attention and arouse his curiosity. The word "suspense" creates an automatic association with "suspenseful" happenstances. Suddenly you spot amber-yellow, glinting tiger-eyes, or treacherous villains and debauched scoundrels. It calls up images of hidden treasure, of an Edgar Wallace detective novel or Sherlock Holmes. The thought of suspense alone sends a pleasurable shiver down the spine. As I said previously, you can apply various and sundry criteria in judging the quality of a work - such as moral, didactic, political, Marxist and Christian criteria, for example. However, if a book is to be read at all, suspense must be present. The reader must be seized and drawn into the story. I have always asked myself the question, "How has the author (of the book I'm reading at the moment) managed to kindle my interest? What techniques does she use to draw me into the story? Why do I keep on reading it, anyway? Allow me to underscore the importance of asking the right question, sometimes more important than a hundred clever answers. Never again will you read a book naively and passively. In addition to being on the lookout for words like a master thief, you will also be continually asking yourself these questions: • • •
Why can't I put this book down? - Damn! Why am I glued to this story? How has the author managed to capture my attention?
Buy a small notebook, in which you'll meticulously note down why you are continuing to read right now. I predict that you'll come up with answers similar to mine, but when you make the discovery for yourself, it will be more valuable and have a more profound effect on you than if it had been worked out by others and served up to you on a silver platter. This collection of suspense techniques is also not necessarily a complete list of all the possibilities open to you. Perhaps you might uncover other ways of capturing the reader's attention
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and piquing his interest. And, in the final analysis, it is worth more than all the tea in China for you to train yourself, consciously, to read actively and with some distance - as a professional freebooter, so to speak. Don't forget that many momentous discoveries have been made and a host of indispensable techniques have been developed simply because someone asked the correct question! So constantly ask yourself how the author has managed to get you to keep your nose buried in her book. But now, without further delay - let's get right to it!
Technique No.1:
Attention to the Future
Let's begin by defining this mysterious word, "suspense." What is "suspense?" Well, from the author's perspective, suspense is the art of controlling the reader's attention for a specific period of time. Pardon my pointing this out to you, but I manipulated your attention as well - and not in the negative sense of the words "control" and "manipulation." I was particularly careful to hint that something special, something extraordinary was in store for you after the chapter, "Words - the Author's Tool." By doing this, I drew your attention firmly to the future. So always draw your reader's attention to future occurrences. If you have drawn up a suspenseful, surprise-packed ending, and allowed a hint of it to be visible between the lines, the reader will have to read the book to the very end. The same thing is true for the middle of a book. You can (cautiously) drop little hints so that the reader's attention remains stuck in the future. Any and everything that serves to project the reader's attention into the future is a solid method of generating suspense. By "future," I mean, of course, the future of the work, the novel, the non-fiction book, etc. There really are 101 opportunities to use this method. Insinuations such as: •
"Had F. sensed what was awaiting her at the meeting, she would not have remained so snugly seated in her armchair." Or "But the situation would not remain calm for long." Or "The mere thought of the next day caused me to sweat blood."
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How To BUILD
HEART-POUNDING
SUSPENSE SYSTEMATICALLY
Draw the reader's attention to the future.
In principle, you can always give your reader an appetizer that leaves him hungry for more. Give him a teaser. Tickle his imagination. Interestingly enough, your reader's imagination is your working capital. This is a technique you can use for non-fiction as well as for novels, stories, and screenplays. It's unbeatable as a method, but it must be applied judiciously. If you lay it on too thick, your readers and viewers will spot you coming a mile away. You can also draw your reader's attention to the future in expectation of the unfolding of several "topics," wrapping him up like a writhing fly in several threads of the spider's web. Or you could repeatedly bring one topic that you've kept simmering on the back burner to a boil by vaguely hinting at it now and again.
Technique No.2:
Two Ideas
The starting point for a novel, or any other work of literature, is always an idea. The idea can also be a trap for the writer. My advice is this: Don't just fall in love with one idea, no matter how brilliant it might be. The idea, the realization, the flash of inspiration is solely the beginning of a work. To write a book, you have to start with two ideas at a minimum. Start out writing your book with the initial idea and the conclusion in mind! Construct a beginning and a finale. Generally speaking, the finale is the writer's starting point. As the author,
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you roll the story out from the conclusion to the introduction. So that makes it a superb idea to have the twist, the climax at the ready before you've even written the first line. You have to compose the story towards the climax. Suspense practically develops on its own if the work is developed in this way. ever start writing a book until you have visualized how it will end. This is a good point to bring up an intriguing empirical point. Do you know anyone who has been toying with the idea of writing a book, but never carries it out? I can tell you where his Achilles' heel is; this "writer" has never visualized an ending for his book. He has fallen head over heels in love with a (possibly enchanting and beguiling) idea, but has yet to strategize a plan of attack. He's got to get down to the business of delineating how the plot, which begins so auspiciously, will develop and, above all, how it will end. In other words, he didn't begin with two ideas. After some time has passed, the book bogs down. The words flow less freely and the drive to continue flags exponentially until one day the stream of ideas runs totally dry. The reason? The author didn't start with two ideas which would have made suspense a fait accompli by forcing the plot to shift back and forth between two opposite poles. This, by the way, is a "subjective suspense technique," or a "creativity technique," which we were actually planning to save for the climax and denouement. But we need to trot it out in order to introduce Technique No.3, as you'll soon see. For the record, even seasoned writers have been caught in the trap of beginning a book with only one idea. They didn't conceptualize the ending before beginning the book. So, as they approached the climax, they were forced to dish up a paper-thin, contrived and decidedly unthrilling solution. Always start with a minimum of two ideas when you set about the task of writing a book.
Technique No.3: The Surprise The climax and the finale have to contain an element of surprise. As the author, it is your responsibility to ensure that the peak, the devious twist you create, is ten times more interesting than the reader could possibly have imagined. If it isn't, she may as well have written the book herself. Climaxes, and above all, endings must be unexpected for that very reason. It is imperative that they exceed the expectations of the reader.
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How To BUILD
HEART-POUNDING
SUSPENSE SYSTEMATICALLY
Technique No.3, the surprise, explains why writers are so fervent about collecting anecdotes about bizarre deaths - just as someone else might collect stamps. A death, be it murder or suicide, is always something startling. As an author, however, it is your job to be ready to snap up and unload a surprise. This little technique also solves the conundrum of why "the murderer is always the gardener" and never the shady slouching scoundrel with his hat pulled down over his face. The reader always thinks he knows how the book will end - but the ending is totally different than what he had expected. This is Technique No. 3 in a nutshell. If you apply Technique No.2 (starting out with two ideas), don't forget to include Technique No. 3 right out of the box. Construct an unexpected, startling conclusion. At this point, I would like you to recall some books you've read. How did that element of surprise manifest itself in the finale? When examining "classic" authors, such as Johann Wolfgang von Goethe, we discover that even they wouldn't turn up their noses at using this surprise technique. In the best seller that established Goethe as a household name in his native country, The Sorrows of Young Werther, the lover astonishingly commits suicide at the end of the book. You could also cite Agatha Christie as an example. For instance, her marvelously well written mystery Philomel Cottage is book about a woman who gradually comes to the realization that she has married a con artist who kills his wives after a certain period of time. The story approaches its climax; the woman intuits that the same fate awaits her as her predecessors. The suspense builds up to a fever pitch when her husband is, in fact, actually about to kill her. At the very last moment, a brilliant idea occurs to the woman. She leads her husband to believe that she too is a murderer and that she has just stirred poison into his coffee. Her husband, the murderer, is so aghast that he falls over dead then and there before her very eyes. This is a genuinely surprising twist. In fact, the surprise is the candy that you use as bait to keep the reader glued to the page. After all, he wants to know how it will all end, or how a perplexing problem will be solved. Conversely, you could probably easily cite several examples from memory of cases where Technique No.2 was violated and the reader's expectations were disappointed. Bad mystery shows or movies, without a surprising surprise at the end always leave a flat taste in your mouth. We have all had the experience of watching a show to the bitter end because we hope and pray that we will be rewarded, or, rather, surprised.
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There is much more know-how in the field of surprise - but we won't expound on it at this juncture so that we don't pile on too much at once. In the chapter titled "Suspense Techniques - the Next Level," you'll find the answer to the question of how to create surprises. It will take your breath away!
Technique No.4: The Mystery Another way to write astoundingly gripping books is to introduce a mystery. The unknown draws attention to itself as if by magic. The mystery novel genre owes its existence primarily to this technique. If you allude to a mystery at the beginning of a book, the reader has to stick it out until the end, otherwise, she'll never find out "the truth." Once you've introduced a mystery, though, the explanation of the mystery has to exceed the reader's expectations, or she'll be disappointed (cf. Technique No.3). But back to the mystery. If I don't know where the doubloons are hidden, what is written in the cryptic letter on the pale-blue stationery, who the cutthroat is, when the dynamite is set to explode, what lies hidden in the small black box and whether the double agent is also acting as a scout for the Russians, I have to read on. I have no other choice in the matter. It is a fantastic technique, possibly la creme de la creme of all suspense techniques. Often, a novel is made up of nothing more than a step-by-step disclosure of a mystery. The reader has no option but to remain faithful to you, since he would otherwise remain hung up on this puzzle forever. This technique also explains why you continue watching humdrum movies until the bitter end. You want to find out what the mystery was that was introduced so tantalizingly at the beginning. Damn! You can employ the mystery technique in different ways. • Let's assume that an enigma was introduced at the beginning of a book. But, at some point, you have to let the. cat out of the bag. You can go to the next level, by which I mean that you can introduce a new mystery before the first one has been solved, so that the reader remains glued to the text. In other words, before solving an old mystery, integrate at least one new one into the text. This ensures that the reader is inexorably drawn into the sequence of events in the plot and has to continue reading.
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Another possibility entails confronting the reader with one mystery. Shortly thereafter, you introduce a second mystery, so that the reader is doubly "tied" to the story. This implies that you don't solve mystery No.1. Finally, you can cause the "suspense battery" to be "recharged" by regularly bringing up a single mystery over and over again.
•
'-~~-: Mystery mentioned repeatedly
---
= •
Mystery
I I
•
--0-,,
-- ---" , " I I
....
,
I I
- --
---
I I
Mystery solved
III.... r-~~~~----------------~r The course of the plot
Introduction
•
36
Conclusion
A mystery can be introduced in manifold ways. If the hero doesn't know where he is or where he's being led, we're facing a mystery of place. If the heroine doesn't know who her friends (or enemies) are, we're facing a mystery of person. And if you have absolutely no clue who the enemy is and where he'll strike next, you can feel the tension heighten to intolerable levels. One example of the use of this technique can be seen in the movie "The Eiger Sanction" with Clint Eastwood. The screenwriter deliberately keeps the viewer in the dark as to the enemy's identity. Every encounter is fraught with peril. There are mysteries of time (what century has the time machine carried me to?), of reason (why did he do/say/etc. that?), of objects (why is this mysterious letter, box, etc. so important?) in addition to probably twenty other "mystery types." Another popular type is the mystery, "what kind of danger is this?" (Not identifiable.)
HA. A.
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By professionally applying this technique, you will be able to draw a net of heart-poundihg suspense around the reader. Mysteriousness is a magnetic quality and a powerful draw.
Technique No.5: The Goal If the hero stubbornly and fanatically pursues a goal, suspense is also guaranteed. This technique glues the reader to the plot, since he burns to know whether the hero can solve the problem and whether he will reach his goal. This draws the reader's attention to the future. There are different examples of goals. Often, the hero is chasing a girl. Or it's a matter of money, of lots of money! "Chasing a girl" (as a goal), by the way, has nothing to do with sex. Explicitly describing sex is, in fact, a grave mistake. The hope of sex, the hope of love is what fascinates the reader, just as the hope of money. Money can be represented by gold, silver, jewels, jewelry, coins, bills, treasures, houses, land, precious objects, a lucrative marriage and a vast number of other circumstances. The suspense is created by the two poles - will the hero acquire the money - or won't he? Will he get the girl - or won't he? The hero can also be searching for insight - as is the case with the protagonist in Hermann Hesse's best seller Siddhartha, who searches for wisdom and universal knowledge. The reader is anxious, trembling every bit as much as the protagonist, hoping that Siddhartha will reach his goal and that he will finally attain insight. So the actual method consists of setting a goal. An intelligent author will always formulate goals that the society in which he lives considers to be realistic, worthy of attaining and with which it can identify. A goal can also consist of bringing a gangster to justice, a negative goal, if you will. There are numerous goals, possibly as many goals as there are human beings. Of course, there are also destructive goals, but even if the heroine sets a goal for herself of cracking a particularly secure safe, the audience will be just as anxious, will tremble just as much as she, hoping that she will reach it. Often, a goal comprises several goals. If reaching the "overgoal," as you might call it, entails getting the girl, avenging a wrong and money - this means that you, the author, are appealing to three goals that are most certainly
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comprehensible to everyone. Your reading audience has just grown immensely. Frequently, the author works with "subgoals" that are only part of the "overgoal," of the true, the big goal. In other words, while working towards the goal, the hero faces several problems that he has to solve first. It's very interesting to analyze what happens with the reader in such instances - not only is he bound by the "subgoal" (the problem) but also keeps the actual, the original goal, the overgoal in the "back of his mind." You have just captured his attention twice and have effectively bound him to the plot with double manacles. Using goals as a suspense technique is an astoundingly powerful method - probably because it reflects life itself.
Technique No.6:
The Unusual
Anything unusual and incongruent immediately attracts our attention. So be on the lookout for people, events, objects, subjects and elements that stand out (from the everyday). You may laugh at the simplicity of this example, but if a seven-foot man crosses the street, everyone turns around. The same thing happens if the man is only four feet tall. Why? Because this person stands out from the usual, the average, the everyday. This is true of special skills, or atypical architecture or an extraordinary luxury automobile. Interestingly enough, the super rich are just as fascinating as the destitute. I guarantee that if you could get a hump-back whale to cross the aforementioned street, you would be able to collect a dollar from every onlooker for the privilege of standing there and gawking. This technique works fabulously. As a matter of fact, it is often an unusual idea or event that initially inspires an author to write a work in the first place. Strange events, as I said earlier, are to be assigned to this category, as are special skills. When Frank Herbert, the world-famous science fiction author, sets up a duel in his book Dune, (later adapted for the screen) in which a blind man battles against a sighted foe, he is presenting us with an unusual situation. The situation is made even more unusual by the skill the blind man possesses. He is able to perceive his opponent's movements with the aid of his senses of smell and hearing. He hurls his dagger directly into his opponent's eye, after having detected the location of the target by way of his listening skills. This amalgamation of exceptional abilities excites us because it creates suspense. For the same reason, the idea of a man "helping out" at a wedding ceremony
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only because he happens to have the same name as the bridegroom is remarkable. This means that another man marries the bride! Readers love unusual skills in particular. The exhibition of skills such as short-circuiting the wiring via telekinesis or communicating with the spirits of the dead, is exciting. So have your animals talk, your parrots cry and your human characters fly. You have to be willing to leave the path of the everyday and the normal, but this method of imagining unusual circumstances alone produces suspense and rivets the reader's attention. With this in mind, read the following introduction to a story:
Fastidiously scrutinizing his every movement, I observed the runner sprinting in front of me. I carefully studied every hand movement made by the man, who was evidently competing against a much tougher, more muscular opponent. I examined the way he kept his fingers curled, as though he wished to strangle someone, the way he kept his nose at a slant to the wind and the way his right shoulder hung slightly lower than the left one and was sloping at an angle of about 10 degrees to his spine. I watched him place one foot in front of the other, all the while panting and sweating, like a marionette on strings - and expected him to collapse any moment. However, his iron ambition pushed him on, even though the sweat was streaming down his face. He was fighting his opponent bitterly, evidently prepared to fall over dead before admitting defeat. I saw him, his lips pressed together in a thin white line, larger than life before me. I knew that the correct, the decisive moment had arrived - it was time for me to act, immediately, at that very moment! I swiftly activated the psych-o-mat, propelling a razor-sharp will-stream directly into the device, which captured my thoughts and immediately amplified them a thousand-fold, blowing up my will into an explosive wave of energy. I directed the device toward the runner and thrust my amplified will into his skull. At that moment, he was struck as if by a cannon and was catapulted out of his body. I saw his soul, his self, spurt out of his skull and sensed the runner's shock at feeling what he must have perceived to be his skull and bones exploding in all directions. While his soul sprinted away into the cobalt-blue sky, never to be seen again, I saw the body falter and tremble for a moment, like a flag in the wind. I saw its pupils dilate and its mouth widen to scream out, a scream that was never uttered.
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In the very same moment that the spirit of the runner was shot out of his body, I propelled myself into his body at the speed of light, into the spiritless hull of this man. I thrust my self into the head of this body and muffled the scream of extreme terror its mouth was about.to utter at the very last moment. Without hesitating for more than an instant or two, I took control of the entire organism, bringing the motor system and the autonomic nervous system under my command. I continued running next to my muscle-bound opponent as though nothing had happened. Although that ox appeared to be as sensitive as a brick, he must have felt some echo of the soul exchange for a second or two. The air shimmered with heat, sending out invisible waves - yet my opponent merely turned his angular face and gave me a silent, panting look. The drive to win this competition at any price had the upper hand in him. I dashed on, gradually calming the vessels of my heart and the nervous system in order to force all my energy into my muscles, tendons and my vibrating solar plexus. As soon as I was able to regulate my stride, I stole a moment to take a close look at my new body. I was perched in a strange head and could hear the blood pulsing in my temples. I felt its bones and skull from within and crept around in the brain's gray matter, admiring how the billions of nerve cells gathered there had been arranged to form the cerebrum and the medulla oblongata. I felt deep admiration for the artist who had sculpted and engineered this unbelievably complex work of architecture while I strolled about in the pons and the cerebellum and poked at the meninges with my spirit "finger." This ruse I was perpetrating was anything but moral or noble. It had the added effect, however, of obliterating my original memory. While I numbly sprinted alongside my bulky companion, I reflected upon whether the loss was worth gaining the body and the excitement promised by a new adventure. For an instant, I felt miserable and trapped. I tried distracting myself by focusing all of my attention on the movements of my muscles. I listened to the inaudible, but still painful sound of my tortured calf muscles and felt the crushing power of my thighs. When my running companion finally began to pant and struggle for breath, I glanced at him and noticed him looking suspiciously at me from the corner of his eye and sniffing the wind like a bulldog. I immediately
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affected my predecessor's gait, curving my hands and forcing my right shoulder to slope at a slight angle to my spine. My pace remained the same, however, putting me in front of my rival, who continued trotting along, a dazed look on his face. Soon he began violently heaving for breath, his face turning lobster-red. At that point, I gathered all my strength and sprinted off, leaving him in the dust. I pressed my lips together and injected all my strength into this body so that I could stay ahead of him, keeping several hundred yards between him and myself. He finally gave up and dragged himself over to me, gawking like a circus monkey. He pounded me on the shoulder, complimenting me to disguise his smoldering anger and admitting his defeat with a strained smile. I can barely recall what happened next, because my mind was painfully preoccupied with the fact that I was suddenly stuck in a strange body, deprived of my memories ... 5
I think we can stop there. The excitement generated by the idea that a body can be "run" by another person, that it is possible to catapult a soul from a body and then take over the shell, moved the author to write this short story. It also grabs the attention of the reader. From these examples you come quickly to the realization that an author's enemy is the usual, the normal and the mundane. Writers uphold a worldview that can be reduced to the common denominator of embracing the extraordinary. They shun boredom, mediocrity, and bourgeois reality just as the devil shuns holy water. Based on this observation, we could claim that all writers and would-be authors must strive to live an exciting, adventurous life, and we probably wouldn't be too far off the mark. But let's stick to the objective techniques first. It's of utmost importance that you populate your stories with the high and the mighty, the down-and-out and everyone in between. The blockbuster novel after 1949, Wallraff's multi-million best seller, The Lowest of the Low, is another prime example of this philosophy. It vividly portrays the lives of characters who occupy the lowest levels of society. The impoverished are just as fascinating as the super-rich. There's only one thing you cannot Mehler, Ha. 315 ff.
S
A.
"Kosrnische
Mission."
In Science Fiction Story Reader No.
20. Munich.
1983.
p.
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afford as an author - normalcy.
Technique No.7:
Violating Conventions
Related to the concept of focusing on the extraordinary, there exists another technique that good authors endeavor to employ, consciously or unconsciously. They build up suspense by violating conventions, laws and rules. If a burglar picks a lock, breaks into a building and steals something, this is illegal. Illegal acts, or acts that clearly violate any sort of rules, create suspense. You can use this technique to create momentary tension as well as a sweeping suspense curve. The television series "The Fugitive" owed its existence to the fact that the fleeing Dr. Kimble, innocent though he was, was forced to live outside the law and in constant terror of being discovered. Breaking and entering, bomb attacks, assassination, theft, murder, adultery, The entire penal code offers up a plethora of examples of breaking rules. But there are also unwritten conventions in society, just as there are cultural realities and technical and physical truths. By breaking these rules, the author creates suspense. Suspense hangs between the two poles allowed - not allowed or that's the way it is - that's not the way it is. By operating, acting and moving outside of the usual norms, a character creates suspense or perhaps sympathy and identification, as is the case when the reader would not consider the violated norms, rules and laws to be moral or just. The laws of physics are defied in fairy tales which is why children love them so much. Less solid realities are those that affect a few smaller regulations such as "You are not permitted to cross the street if the light is red." Invent a society in which stop is indicated by a green light and you could write the most splendid story, particularly so if you set this society on a collision course with ours.
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So this is a fabulous success formula that is very useful for the fairy tale and science fiction genres. Simply reject what is considered to be "law."
Technique No.8:
The Hero
Idols capture readers' attention, heroes and heroines. The reader identifies with the protagonist. He lives, suffers and wins with "his" hero. A stunning appearance, a razor-sharp mind and impressive mountains of muscle often mark the protagonist. Recall Perry Rhoda, the science fiction superstar. Billions of people know the character of Perry Rhoda .. Sherlock Holmes, Captain Ahab, Jack Ryan, the Count of Monte Crisco - virtually every successful book and movie sell a superhero to the reader or viewer. Some might look down their nose in literary arrogance at this fact, but a fact's a fact and this is an indisputable recipe for success. I would like to note something in passing here. Professionals don't give a hoot about muckrakers who might write uncomplimentary articles about them. The only thing of import to the professional novelist is whether the books sell. Do you, the author, want to satisfy the critics or your readers? The most adroit, well-educated writers such as Goethe, Leasing, Edgar Allan Poe and Mark Twain availed themselves of this technique. If you conjure up a lackluster hero, the readers won't exactly be beating your door down in excitement - after all, who would want to identify with him? Beware, however, your hero's got to do more than lug around chunks of muscle. A realistic hero might feel fear. But he would know how to overcome his fear, to be courageous in his fear. Or, he might be a modest person despite his bravery, thereby winning the hearts of readers. Admittedly, heroes and heroines are almost always idealized and idolized. A writer is at liberty to conjure ideal circumstances into existence out of thin air. If you're able to render even one character realistically and honestly, admirably and affectionately, the reader will hang on your every letter. She won't be satisfied with merely reading the book, she'll gobble it up, cover, pages and all. With this in mind, analyze the following excerpt:
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SIDDHARTHA by HERMANN HESSE, AN EXCERPT "In the shade of the house, in the sunshine on the river bank by the boats, in the shade of the sallow wood and the fig tree, Siddhartha, the handsome Brahmin's son, grew up with his friend Govinda. The sun browned his slender shoulders on the river bank, while bathing at the holy ablutions, at the holy sacrifices. Shadows passed across his eyes in the mango grove during play, while his mother sang, during his father's teachings, when with the learned men. Siddhartha had already long taken part in the learned men's conversations, had engaged in debate with Govinda and had practiced the art of contemplation and meditation with him. Already he knew how to pronounce Om silently ... " 6 We don't need to carry out an in-depth analysis in this case. The hero is what fascinates the reader in this excerpt. Siddhartha has been translated into 40 languages and is a paradigm of a multi-million best seller and a long-seller. Let's consider an important question, How do you create a hero? How do you characterize "types?" First, we have to recognize that courage is always fascinating because we all want to be courageous. The characteristic "courage" is closely related to the phenomenon of the hero. The same thing is true for the characteristic ethics. Extreme respectability is also a reliable source of fascination. Sociological studies have proven that ethics continues to be placed quite high up on the human values scale, even in the decadent 2151 century. If a heroine behaves "courageously" and "ethically," the reader will identify with her, because (at least in literature) she can somehow afford the luxury of risking her life to bring about a better world. A cunning and intelligent heroine also arouses enthusiasm. If a particularly ingenious plan is presented in the introduction of a book, the reader is drawn into the book by the question of whether the plan will be carried out successfully or not. The mere fact that the plan reveals cunning and intelligence is gripping to the reader. It is the product of extraordinary skills, a positive characteristic that furthers the identification of the reader with the heroine. You, the author, are also obliged to "build up" the hero. There is a stepladder or scale approach. For example, you can contrast your hero with another, less 6
Hesse, Hermann.
44
Siddhartha.
New York.
1957.
Trans.
By Hilda Rosner.
p.
5.
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appealing, character. The reader will develop an affinity for the hero. As the plot unfolds, the hero becomes increasingly (physically and mentally) attractive. Build your hero up step by step without resorting to wild, extreme exaggerations. By using the plot, actions and reactions, you can develop the character even further. Finally, the reader's desire that the hero triumph becomes overwhelming. The suspense becomes unbearable. This technique simply entails building up a hero step by step.
Technique No.9:
Hating the Villain
The villain is at least as important, if not more important, than the hero. fter all, the hero needs something to do. In fact, numerous professional actors frankly admit that the role of the villain is often more gratifying than the role of the hero or the heroine. Be that as it may, it's evident that the villain, the anti-hero is the object of perennial fascination. Many television series literally owe their existence to their villains. Just think of J.R. Ewing from the show "Dallas," or of the Collins from "The Denver Clan." Think of nefarious comic book figures or figures from high literature. Think of Star Wars and the Dark Side of the Force. Occasionally we'll find a more villainous and more powerful scoundrel lurking behind the villain, just as an adviser may be supporting the protagonist. It is necessary to outfit your villain with unmistakable characteristics, just as with the hero. You must make him an identifiable type, a statement. But how do you create an identifiable type? A realistic character? Well, first and foremost, aside from special skills, characters have got to possess strong, well-defined intentions. The true intent is essential - not the superficial intent that may be only her camouflage or cover. Thoughts define a character just as effectively as dialog or idiosyncrasies of speech. Your character may have innumerable linguistic peculiarities, perhaps she stutters, perhaps she repeats every sentence twice. She could develop a penchant for particular idioms, could speak with a French accent, could lisp or do any of a thousand things. Once this has been established, you can introduce her gestures, her body language, her appearance and her clothing, even special weapons and equipment. Any or all of these things characterize and distinguish the
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individuals and types in your work so that they are identifiable for the reader. In fact, you could set out to develop nothing less than a small science of how to develop characters. Every writer has his or her own formula in this regard, but the tips listed above surely point in the right direction. Now it's essential to portray the villain as being as dishonest, mean and perhaps as downright sadistic as possible. How do you manage to do that? The technique of truly filling out a character is based on exaggeration. That's why characters such as Superman, the Terminator, Sherlock Holmes, Tarzan, etc. exist. All of these characters are incomprehensibly (read: exaggeratedly) intelligent, strong or skilled. The anti-hero, for his part, has to be very repulsive. For example, if he delights in feasting on human beings, he ought to be described in all the sadistic and perverse lust he feels when he indulges in this depraved pleasure. Depict him tearing a bite out of a freshly killed three-year-old child's well-rounded thigh, oozing delicious blood as he raises it to his mouth . . ,' "', Do you follow? 1 Portray your characters richly and vividly, not weakly and thinly. The more the reader hates the villain, the more the "suspense battery" charges up. The cowboy in the black hat has to be truly vile, abhorrent, perfidious and evil so that the reader wishes for his downfall with all her heart. The more wicked the character, the more fervently the reader wants to see the villain hang, and from the highest branch possible! Since the reader's emotion is your working capital, you can prove you're worth your pay by fulfilling your duty to conjure up the most debauched "bad guys" imaginable. The mere fact that the majority of readers want to see the villain take a fall guarantees you an audience - as long as the villain is a true monster, a real bastard.
Technique No. 10: Danger Here's another suspense technique. Danger in general and life-threatening peril in particular are also real attention-grabbers. By and large, the very survival of the hero or the protagonist is threatened. To die or not to die, that is the question!
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Because the reader/viewer identifies with the characters, he'll feel the danger breathing down his own neck and will want to flee from it. In a way, then, he's fighting for his own survival. And, if confronted with the gaping maw of a lion, who wouldn't do anything to get away from the beast? Well, for the reader "doing anything" can mean only one thing - reading on! And at that point, you, the author, have won. When we say danger, don't always let your thoughts rest on the leopard that has just sprung up to tear out your hero's throat. The fact alone that you can get further and further in debt can also be dangerous. The $64,000 question in that case is, "How in the world will the heroine stave off bankruptcy?" The danger technique is frequently linked to the mystery technique. By ensuring that the reader doesn't know what the danger is, where it comes from, when it will appear, who embodies it, how it will reveal itself, etc., you've successfully combined the "mystery" and "danger" techniques. Using two suspense techniques simultaneously is the Next Level.
Technique No. 11: Action Breathe a little action into your stories. Standing alone, this is a primitive technique, but when used in conjunction with other techniques it's unbeatable. Action can also take place in a character's mind and can imply unforeseen events. The anatomy of action is lots of motion in very little time. Frequently, action is associated with a lack of time. In many cases, the heroine experiences action only subjectively. Let's look at an excerpt from Edgar Allan Poe's Narrative of A. Gordon Pym. Here's the situation: Several people have been trapped on a ship for a number of months. The food has run out and they are growing hungry. Driven to desperation, they resolve to select one of their number at random to be killed and eaten by the others. (Suspense technique: the unusual plus danger.) The unlucky soul who draws the shortest splinter will have to say his farewell prayers. Read on.
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THE NARRATIVE OF A. GORDON PYM BY EDGAR ALLAN POE, AN EXCERPT ... At length delay was no longer possible, and, with a heart almost bursting from my bosom, I advanced to the region of the forecastle, where my companions were awaiting me. I held out my hand with the splinters, and Peters immediately drew. He was free - his, at least, was not the shortest; and there was now another chance against my escape. I summoned up all my strength, and passed the lots to Augustus. He also drew immediately, and he also was free; and now, whether I should live or die, the chances were no more than precisely even. At this moment all the fierceness of the tiger possessed my bosom, and I felt toward my poor fellow-creature, Parker, the most intense, the most diabolical hatred. But the feeling did not last; and, at length, with a convulsive shudder and closed eyes, I held out the two remaining splinters toward him." 7 As previously mentioned, this situation includes the danger technique. But in this case, the action takes place in subjective time. The danger technique is almost inevitably wedded to the action technique. When professionals go about heightening the suspense to a fever pitch, they endeavor to introduce several dangers at the same time. For instance, not only is the hero being pursued by the villain, but during the pursuit a saber-toothed tiger springs out of the undergrowth on the right, just as the arrow shot by a second pursuer zings past the hero's ear. Gasping for breath, our hero stops beneath a sheltering tree that partially conceals the cobra slithering down towards him. Okay? Several simultaneous dangers may be the key to the action technique. The desire to play down action's importance as a technique has its origin in the primitive and clumsy use of the method. The endless high-speed pursuits common to detective movies have lowered the technique's repute. Nevertheless, when judiciously applied by the professional, it still packs enough punch to launch the reader into a very high orbit.
7
Poe, Edgar Allan. The Complete Tales and Poems of Edgar Allan Poe. New York. 1975. p. 819.
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Technique No. 12: Opposites Attract Suspense is .also created by the relationship of pole to antipole. It's coneivable that this might take the form of two opposite opinions, say between twO friends. This demonstrates why the dialog can be used as an instrument to create suspense. A pole automatically creates an anti pole. The process mirrors the physical phenomenon. You may be surprised how often this technique is applied. The battle of good against evil, the basic motif of all major works of literature as well as of pulp or commercial literature, is based on this principle. Faust versus Mephisto, Mickey Mouse versus Goofy - everyone, but everyone uses this technique (and I hope you were amused by my mentioning Mickey Mouse and Faust in the same sentence). This vital concept, pole - antipole, could easily be the subject of an entire book, connecting the introduction to the development of the plot all the way through to its conclusion. However, this technique could be also applied to certain episodes or segments of the book. There are innumerable ways of employing this method. You can't overestimate the importance of this principle. The pole - antipole technique is increasingly being used in non-fiction best ellers. The superbly written seller on the multinational corporation McDonald's draws most of its suspense from the controversy surrounding the founder and the president of the company. The incomparable non-fiction work, a worldwide best seller, Iacocca: An Autobiography derives its interest to a large extent from the controversy between Henry Ford II, a controlling shareholder of the Ford Motor Company, and Iacocca himself. In fact, the structure of these nonfiction works bears a very strong resemblance to the structure of novels.
Technique No. 13: Reality Good authors are praised time and time again for producing works that seem "realistic." Note - seem, not are! So you could quite innocently ask the question "H,?w do I attain this realism?" "Reality" is attained by inserting copious "sensual" details, such as describing the smell of a particular person, place, or thing. All the senses lend themselves to this sort of description. Depicting sensory impressions precisely is one way of snaring the reader's
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attention. Because of it, an entire world or cosmos will "coalesce" and become "real." "Randomly" occurring thoughts also contribute to the realistic touch of a work of literature. The writer can describe the objective surroundings on the one hand while revealing a character's subjective thoughts on the other. This generates a sense of "reality" that generates tension between the poles of objectivity and subjectivity. Repetitions can also act to create "reality." Returning to a description of the hero's high-tech weaponry again and again - or depicting the other characters' reaction to the anti-hero's pungent stench are examples. Many top authors create "reality" by researching details very precisely, be they scientific or of a cultural nature. In the novels of many best-selling authors, the places, airports, departure times and train schedules are a perfect reflection of the real world. So there are innumerable methods of creating "realism" even though the novel, absurdly enough, is the product of pure invention and imagination - the exact opposite of reality! Be that as it may, the reader wants to be persuaded. She wants to be drawn into a new "world," that is, another reality. The better you, the author, are able to create an illusion, a new reality, the more convincing and successful you will be. That's the reason writers research the vocabulary of character types as accurately as possible. They want to be able to write realistically. Having said that, there's no need to go into a bordello to research the jargon of whores. It's an excellent idea, however, to move in different circles and to study potential character types. Traveling is also a typical pastime of authors - traveling introduces you to new "realities" that can be stylized, processed and reproduced with a new twist. What the critic calls a cliche (a mean word) is a reality that has been portrayed awkwardly and incompetently. I could add another ten pages on how to acquaint yourself with new realities. A mere conversation can provide abundant opportunities to do so, as can observation. But let's save the creativity techniques for later. It's worth noting that artists are able to conjure up new realities out of thin air and make these new worlds into true realities. Cast your gaze over to Disneyland in California. This amusement park was once just a glimmer in Walt Disney's eye, thin, invisible and intangible. But, just as sure as you see the words upon this page, his idea was transformed into the Disney parks and is as real as "real" can be. In fact, authors make new realities, which is to say they create. You don't
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need to limit this to science fiction authors, many of whose "wacky" ideas, by the way, have been actualized by engineers. You could write a doctoral dissertation on the subject of "reality." For our purposes, however, it suffices to stress that good authors are able to create realities, new realities, and are also capable of describing them realistically. This is one of the skills a write must possess. The good news is that you can learn this skill and practice it.
Technique No. 14: Passion You're about to plunge into one of the "hottest" sections of this book. If what you genuinely want is to generate suspense, attention and interest, you have to be a master of portraying what Aristotle called the "passions." Accomplishing this will guarantee you success so permanent that the only way to escape it will be to commit suicide. You'll notice it everywhere you look, the plays, novels and films that touch our hearts most deeply, that enjoy the greatest acclaim, are laced with passion. Even though you might be proficient in every suspense technique under the sun, if you can't conjure up passion, you're lacking 90 percent of your craft. Or, to put it another way, passion is what gives a story its pizzazz. In response to my questions, "Why am I reading on at all? Why do I feel drawn into and glued to the story? Why can't I put this book down?" - one answer kept coming back with exquisite regularity. It was the passion that captivated me. Passion captivates readers more effectively than you might imagine. There are any number of opportunities to work it in. First and foremost, you can use passion to characterize a person. If you competently and consistently portray a character as acting and reacting in, let us say, a terrified manner, you've created a type. You can even use this method to typify incidental characters. There's no denying that passion lures the reader into a story, particularly if it includes all the physiological details and the accompanying glandular secretions have been recounted in loving detail, to cite one popular example. You can use passion to construct suspense curves, or to stir up suspense and interest at isolated points. Study how passion is employed in literature or cinema from the standpoint of a professional.
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How To BUILD
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Technique No. 15: Humor Humor and comedy also arouse interest. If you write a truly hilarious text, you've got the reader in your front pocket. But how do you cook up humor? Is it an inherent characteristic, a kind of talent? Maybe, but if we look at it from the standpoint that you can make best sellers, then we ought to be able to tackle the subject of humor too. Of the vast number of humor techniques, there are some which go hand in hand with the suspense techniques we've already discussed, while others are entirely new. Let's list some humor techniques: (l)Exaggeration: One of the most famous contemporary satirists, Ephraim Kishon, takes great pleasure in working with the exaggeration technique whenever he wants to capture the reader's attention and create "suspense." Kishon exaggerates shamelessly. He yanks events out of an entirely normal context and works minuscule, but bothersome details (for instance, that the soup is too hot) into a story. Kishon is particularly fond of exploiting life's little thorns for their humorous value. He blows these up into unrecognizable proportions, loses himself in the exaggeration and finally works in a surprising twist. This plan, as simple (almost) as it is effective, always works. (2)The surprising twist: We already know this technique. Let's ask ourselves once again, "How do you invent surprising twists?" Well, there are numerous ways. A word employed with a different meaning than the one expected makes for a surprising twist. For example, "Take my wife - please!" Another example of a surprising twist: "I'm not saying that he's a little on the slow side- I think he's a total moron!" The discrepancy between what is expected and what happens is a description of surprise. If you want to bring about surprise, you have to direct the reader/viewer/listener onto what appears to be a linear, predictable track. Once the imagination train starts chugging out of the station - you throw an unexpected switch. (3)Mix-ups: "Accidentally" confuse things with one another (persons, objects, places, etc.) This will create a comical effect. (4) Tell the truth about things that no one dares to tell the truth about; however, do this in a humorous fashion. (5)Set your sights on taboo topics. Publicly denounce surreptitious vices. If something is wrong, then say so directly (tax evasion, etc.)
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6)Make subtle implications. Allusions, innuendo and omissions situated properly - can also make your reader laugh.
MEHLER
- when
The salient point is that you should not classify jokes. That's a job for your ccountant. You have to isolate the method, the technique, the reason for ughter. At that point, you will be in a position to create jokes or humor at . ·ill. It has been said that humor is a divine characteristic. And it's a fact, hether you're writing non-fiction, a novel or a screenplay, you'll gain readers faster by using humor than if your publisher invests a million dollars in an ad ampaign. Classifying humor, differentiating between gallows humor, comedy, tragicomedy, vaudeville, stand-up, smutty humor and a hundred other technical distinctions, won't divulge the secret of how you, the author, can produce it. On the other hand, if you concentrate on technique, you'll be able to conjure up humor whenever you need it.
One way to achieve utter surprise is to use irony: Irony means stating exactly the opposite of what is obvious and factual. For instance, calling an ugly little man with an enormous nose a "handsome devil" is irony. In the U.S. some people say (quite enthusiastically) aaadd! They mean that it is good. That's irony.
that something is real
Technique No. 16: Enthusiasm Enthusiasm is another handy item in an author's bag of tricks. Readers are attracted to a happy, cheerful and positive person like moths to a flame. The same thing is true for happy, cheerful and positive literature. The enthusiasm technique, which often goes hand in hand with the concept of success, is a particular darling of good non-fiction. The work I cited earlier, Iacocca: An Autobiography, is a prime example of this technique, as is the lobal best seller In Search of Excellence. Dale Carnegie's book, How to Win Friends and Influence People or Napoleon Hill's Think and Grow Rich are also imbued with great enthusiasm and bursting with optimism. It's worth noting that it's easier to create an atmosphere of enthusiasm if you are in a good mood. But more on that later.
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How To BUILD
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Technique No. 17: Sex, Crime & Big Heads Sex, crime and big heads are the tools used by the press to catch readers' attention. This is a technique you should be familiar with. I should repeat at this point that sex itself is much less interesting than the hope of sex. The tender description of a lock of hair, of an earlobe, or of the back of a woman's neck can spur your reader's imagination to greater heights than serving up a detailed verbal schematic of the minutiae of a vagina. In order to fuel the suspense that's already building, initial misunderstandings can be used to prevent the hero from establishing an amorous liaison prematurely. The reader's erotic imagination is piqued when the anticipated love affair isn't consummated or, rather, the consummation isn't alluded to until the end of the book.
Technique No. 18: Isolated Suspense Let's distinguish between small suspense curves and large suspense curves. Momentary suspense (small suspense curve, isolated suspense) can come about merely through the length of a sentence. The reader begins reading a sentence - and wants to read all of it, of course. A superb example: The Sentence First it started moving, it, the sentence, stretching, straightening and shaking itself, then peeping around the corner until it believed that it wouldn't be seen by anyone, at which point it took a bold leap right into itself, where it wallowed about in increasing delight until it gave it another go, looking disdainfully at the next comma, which it reached in one brilliant bounce, after which it became arrogant, swallowing its own indication of place in one fell swoop, exuberantly hurling the adjectives against the subject and pelting the verb with the slippery object until it suddenly slipped, giving itself a bloody semicolon nose; this didn't stop it, however, from wildly, feverishly flinging its arms back - long, dangling, dubiously phrased relative clauses, held up on either side by dashes and then rising up again where it spotted a tiny comma on the pale blue horizon, almost made invisible by the distance, and then hurried towards
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it where, however, no sooner had it reached the comma than a colon enticed it down one more line where it sat, threateningly fat and solid, so much so that the upper dot almost touched the lower one, but the sentence rejected any approaches, slithering through the two sexually charged dots and then laughing tauntingly at them once through until it was distracted yet again by the dash that muddled up all its thoughts so thai the moment it had reached the farthest right end of the little dash, it lost its balance and tumbled down an abyss where, however, friendly quotation marks with the last name of "Krrettelkatt" caught it, but the sentence was sick and tired of it al!, so it stretched back (and forth) - and suddenly had nothing more urgent to do than to leap towards its own tail which it stopped short of reaching, preferring to tie a little knot there and then finally, after wandering all over the page, it finally reached its home port: a soot-black, cozily warm and perfectly round period. 8 There's no need to add an interpretation to this story. What it shows is that a single sentence does contain suspense and that it consists of one suspense urve. The principle all of this is based on is that the reader tends to finish a ycle once begun and therefore will keep on reading. You can also insert a "detonator" at the end of a sentence. Once the reader steps on this literary land mine, he'll be catapulted into the next sentence. The intertwining suspense relationship of separate sentences has yet to be the subject of serious study. Smaller isolated suspense curves can be shaped by one single sentence in addition to the techniques I've described so far. You could also call them "sub-suspense curves," which are strictly separated from the attention-getting narrative that glues the entire story together.
Technique No. 19: Point of View and Perspective Another way to get a firm grip on the reader's attention is by fashioning your own world. The first step is being able to consider objects and subjects from different perspectives . • Mehler, Ha. A.
"Das Muckelmannchen".
Wiesbaden,
1978.
P. 96.
•
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How To
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An example: Try to perceive your surroundings with the eyes of a dog. Vividly imagine what it's like to register everything using your olfactory organs, and from Fido's perspective two feet off the ground. The entire world of your impressions changes accordingly. Everything is judged on the basis of its smell, aroma or stench. Pretty interesting, wouldn't you say? An art historian would take in Rome with different eyes than a teenager would. Can you imagine how a stone must "think" or "feel" - or a water lily, or a koala bear? It's no exaggeration to say that you're in for some adventures. This is one of the staples of good writing, touching though it might on the area of creativity techniques, which will be described later in the book. So let's just leave it at this comment. Let's not forget, however, that the ability to take up different points of view, different perspectives is essential. These points of view could be people, animals, plants or inanimate objects whatever you want. Give it a try!
Technique No. 20: To Be Continued ... You can craft two primary suspense curves within one novel. One of these suspense curves is cut off at the most exciting part - only to be continued two chapters on. Get it? The monster spreads its jaws wide to devour Kunigunde ... End of chapter. A second narrative is developed. Siegfried, the noble knight, treads lightly through the forest, fighting bears, wolves and dragons, until he is suddenly confronted with a seemingly insurmountable obstacle ... End of chapter. Now it's Kunigunde's turn. And so on and so forth. This method is a favorite of television shows, since the producers want to lure the viewers back to the next episode. This method has a wonderful name, "cliffhanger." In other words, the hero, the protagonist, is hanging onto the edge of a cliff, moments from losing his grip and falling. An abyss yawns up at his feet. It would be the end of him if he were to fall. Here we have extreme, intense danger to life and limb. How will he save himself? Will he be able to save himself? Weeellll - you'll only find out if you watch the next episode of the show! A
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cliftbanger," which is a metaphor for the "to be continued ... " suspense echnique, requires scriptwriters to use a special technique. They have to direct all the other narratives included in the plot toward this apparent ending only to reak off expertly once the tension has reached a fever pitch. Let's leave our survey of the realm of basic suspense techniques. We've seen that this is the clay from which authors can sculpt outstanding books. Of ourse, there's more we could learn in this area. There's even an academic field we could call Suspense Techniques: The Next Level. Do you want to know what that's all about? Yes? Really? Are you sure? To be continued ••.
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IV. Suspense Techniques: The Next Level
We haven't yet begun to make the precise, technical distinctions that are essential for those who wish to expand on the subject of suspense as a separate discipline. So let's take a closer look at the different forms of suspense. (1) Without a doubt the most important form of suspense is what we will christen the primary suspense curve. We could call it the "main suspense curve" or the "main suspense vein," but we're not worrying about the way these words might ring in your ear at the moment. The primary suspense curve is the suspense that is introduced at the beginning and is maintained until the end. More often than not, the introduction makes use of the goal or the mystery technique. This is what commands the reader's attention from the introduction to the conclusion. Less significant, but important enough, is another main suspense curve that we'll call the secondary suspense curve. This is another suspense curve that is placed at the beginning and is maintained until the end. However, this second curve is not as essential to the story line as is the primary suspense curve. Often, love, or, rather, the question "Will he get the girl or not?" is the focal point of the secondary suspense curve. There can also be a tertiary suspense curve, but rarely more than that. (2)Distinct from these are partial suspense curves that might last only a few pages or even a few chapters of a book, but that aren't taken up again throughout the entire book. Often, they can be categorized as an immediate danger or the potential of danger. There can be a plenitude of these smaller suspense curves. (3)The third form of suspense we will baptize isolated suspense. This implies extremely brief moments of suspense and comprises single sentences or perhaps the opposites attract technique applied to a miniscule space and a brief time span. We've divided
58
these types of suspense
based on their length or extent.
HA. A.
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Needless to say, there are also intermediate levels. In the following experiment, this differentiation will be a crucial factor. After having discovered the separate suspense techniques, I conducted a tricky experiment: I turned my attention to some of the most renowned global best sellers, examining them closely and dissecting them in detail. I wanted to lay bare how these authors had created suspense. It was a highly intriguing experiment, and one I would urge you to undertake. The next time you pick up a gripping book that has you under its spell, that you find exciting and that keeps you up at night, ask yourself how your captivation has been accomplished, how the author engineered it. Analysis will become a valuable instrument for you. I might even dare to say that only a person capable of analyzing and observing is also capable of writing outstanding books. The most distinguished names grace the following pages, running the gamut from mystery legends such as Alfred Hitchcock and Agatha Christie or the world's most read science fiction authors such as Isaac Asimov (who once received a million dollar advance for a single novel) or Frank Herbert and the legendary E.E. Smith. I've dissected movies such as "Ben Hur," a James Bond film or two and "The Sting." The giants of our time, the likes of Richard Bach, who wrote Jonathon Livingston Seagull and Robert Ludlum - the creme de fa creme of suspense professionals, have all filed before my analytical eye. Start cultivating the attitude that it's to your advantage to clamber into the brains of these star authors and look through their eyes in order to discover how they see the world. Make an effort to understand how the best minds of his century made best sellers. I would highly recommend that you purchase and read one of the works I mentioned if you have not read it. I promise you it will be worth your while. You'll learn far more about suspense techniques than you would if you studied ten semesters of college English. And you'll be terrifically entertained to boot. So let's just plunge right into the fray and take a look at what might have been rattling around in the cerebral folds of these best-selling authors.
1.
The Most Refined Tricks of Best-Selling Authors
The individual analyses appear in this section. of things.
Let's just get into the thick
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SUSPENSE TECHNIQUES: THE NEXT LEVEL
Suspense Analysis No.1: This best-selling
Robert Ludlum's The Matarese Circle
author uses the following suspense techniques:
(1 )The heroes are up against true villains. In this case, two first-rate intelligence agents are trying to foil the plans of two exceptionally evil individuals whose goal it is to gain world dominance by causing the global economy to collapse. Opposites attract is the most prominent technique. The reader naturally wonders who will emerge the victor in the end, or, rather, how the cowboys in the white Stetsons will emerge victorious. There is an implicit goal involved in this. (Technique Nos. 5, 8, 9 and 12) (2)The research that went into making the intelligence service realistic is extremely impressive. From the equipment to the names of all the various intelligence services in Italy, England, France and the US. It's all accurate. You can clearly see that an enormous amount of investigation went into this book. (Technique No. 13) (3)Furthermore, danger, mortal danger, permeates the book. Unusual schemes are hatched and equally unusual attacks carried out. The plans are cunning and intelligent. The skills of each active character are also unusual. With the plot unfolding at a breakneck pace, there is action. (Techniques Nos. 3, 6, and 11) (4 )Constant surprises ensure that the reader's interest never flags. The entire book is chock full of entertainment, assuming that you enjoy this genre. The total number of copies of Ludlum books sold worldwide, more than 200 million, makes this author an outstanding example to follow.
Suspense Analysis No.2:
Frank Herbert's The Santaroga Barrier
Gilbert Dasein, the hero of the piece, is supposed to uncover the secrets of the small town of Santaroga. The government has determined that the townspeople behave very strangely and have shut themselves off from the rest of the world. Dasein performs various investigations in order to unearth the secrets, but in the course of these investigations he barely escapes death seven times. He initially dismisses these near misses as coincidences until the frequency of the apparent attacks leaves him no other alternative than to conclude that they are (at least sub-consciously) planned assassination attempts.
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At the same time, he encounters a mind-altering drug, "jaspers" at every turn, in the food and drink he is served and even in the air. The drug causes a drastic alteration of the user's attitude, opinions and personal views. Because Dasein has also ingested and inhaled the drug, he doesn't realize that his own behavior is rapidly conforming to that of the locals. He ultimately rejects the rest of the world, just as the Santarogians do and, at the very end, kills his friend and mentor Selador, the psychologist who assigned him to the Santaroga mission. So far, so good! Now let's get to the analysis. Consider the third (/) sentence of this diminutive masterpiece, "Gilbert Dasein pulled his truck on to the gravel, stopped at a white barrier fence and looked down into the valley whose secrets he had come to expose." This establishes the primary suspense curve. Dasein is supposed to clear up a mystery. This is simultaneously the goal. There are attendant circumstances shrouded in mystery that ensure that the reader never loses sight of the goal of resolving the riddle of the enigmatic Santarogians. It's remarkable that the reader identifies with Dasein and his thoughts. He ontinually ruminates on what he observes and ponders insightful questions, thus drawing the reader into the investigation/the goal. Dasein meets Jenny, a native Santarogian, before getting down to the business of unraveling the mystery of the strange town. Jenny's love for Dasein is the ostensible reason for his close scrutiny of the Santaroga. She tempts the reader with the hope of sex/love. This is the secondary suspense curve, which runs hrough the book parallel to the primary suspense curve. The extraordinary and bizarre nature of the accidents and attacks, and Dasein's changing perceptions which cross the line between what is considered normal and what is not, both combine to draw the reader into the plot. As you might expect, a surprising twist is introduced toward the end of the book. This manifests itself in two ways. First, the protagonist seems to backtrack on himself. He doesn't reach his goal. He doesn't shed any light on the mystery. Secondly, he kills his friend and mentor. Both developments surprise and astonish the reader. It's quite remarkable that the actual solution/twist is presented and wrapped up in about ten pages, while the preceding 230 pages have successfully kept the reader guessing whether Dasein would triumph over his adversaries or not. These suspense curves might look like this.
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SUSPENSE TECHNIQUES: THE NEXT LEVEL
Partial Suspense Curves
Beginning of Story
r-rL-"'-~L------------------~,-"--,,O Turning-point: "Dasein" is "reversed" and kills friend and mentor.
Ending of Story Love: Is fulfilled.
If we were to attempt to express this visually, we might describe the plot like this:
•
Suspense Intensity
Beginning of Story
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•
Ending of Story
HA. A.
MEHLER
This diagram also reveals other details of interest to us. The story is more xciting at the peak of a partial suspense curve than at other points in the story. Another tidbit this figure discloses is the fact that the author has to invent a steady supply of subplots within the larger plot. Also, the more secrets the author introduces into the plot, the hungrier the reader becomes to get to the art where the riddles are solved. The question marks pile up, adding fuel to the reader's burning curiosity. As we've seen already, the writer's art consists of being able to fulfill these expectations. Frank Herbert pulls it off masterfully.
uspense Analysis No.3:
The Movie "Ben Hur"
May I omit the plot summary in this case? Millions of people have seen the film, which has been shown numerous times by a prodigious number of television stations. I think that it's in your best interest for us to plunge directly into the analysis. The method used to build up suspense in the movie is multilayered and relatively complex, which makes attempting an analysis of it even more exciting. The main suspense curves are: l)Ben Hur vs. Messala (good vs. evil = opposites attract plus a goal, namely to defeat the villain). (2)Will Ben Hur be able to attain his goal of finding his sister and mother? 3)Will he be able to convince his lovely Jewish sweetheart to marry him? (goal/love) In this case, it's essential to draw an exact line between the primary suspense urve and other suspense curves of secondary importance. Considering the fact that Ben Hur is h~ld prisoner on the galley and that his mother and sister have vanished, the question of whether he will marry his lover is less important. This is our visual representation of Ben Hur:
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SUSPENSE TECHNIQUES: THE NEXT LEVEL
This suspense curve is actually wavy; the depths of hopelessness alternate with triumph. It would be worth carrying out a separate study on the emotions in this cinematic hit, cataloging and following them throughout. Notice that it's fairly straightforward work to note the suspense curves in a comparatively complex story. Still, it would be possible to write a doctoral dissertation on the subject "Suspense in Ben Hur." Time to discuss the partial suspense curves. The following situations cause the suspense to swell in this Academy-award winning film. - Ben Hur is banished to rot on a slave galley (= horror at imagining this punishment = the unusual) - Mother and sister are threatened by an epidemic (=horror at imagining this "fate" = the unusual) - The competition between Messala and Ben Hur. The chariot race at the end involves extreme danger to life and limb and requires both men to perform at the outermost limits of their endurance (= danger plus action plus unusual performance. ) There are additional partial suspense curves. And, considering the film in question, it would be a mortal sin to forgo mentioning the set, which is singularly professional. Motion pictures are the products of the efforts of several hundred experts who deserve our utmost respect and honor.
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Suspense ~nalysis
No.4:
Richard Bach's Jonathon
Livingston
MEHLER
Seagull
Let's turn our analytical attention to something completely different. Read through the first pages of the global best seller Jonathon Livingston Seagull, which was later adapted for the screen. While reading this work of soul-stirring beauty, pay close attention to how the author creates suspense and ask yourself why you continue reading.
JONATHAN LIVINGSTON SEAGULL BY RICHARD BACH, AN EXCERPT But way off alone, out by himself beyond boat and shore, Jonathan Livingston Seagull was practicing. A hundred feet in the sky he lowered his webbed feet, lifted his beak, and strained to hold a painful hard twisted curve through his wings. The curve meant that he would fly slowly, and now he slowed until the wind was a whisper in his face, until the ocean stood still beneath him. He narrowed his eyes in fierce concentration, held his breath, forced one ... single ... more... inch ... of... curve :.. Then his feathers ruffled, he stalled and fell. "Seagulls, as you know, never falter, never stall. To stall in the air is for them disgrace and it is dishonor. But Jonathan Livingston Seagull, unashamed, stretching his wings again in that trembling hard curve slowing, slowing, and stalling once more - was no ordinary bird ... 9 Do you know what the technique is? Jonathan Livingston Seagull is a classic example of how to construct a hero. The hero is almost inevitably characterized by something unusual. The main suspense curve is suspended between these two points. And here's a tip: When analyzing suspense, it's a good idea to distinguish between: (l)The initial suspense, i.e. how suspense is crafted in the initial phase of a book. (2)The primary suspense curve. (3)And the suspense in the final phase of the book, i.e. how the suspense progresses to its climax.
9
Bach, Richard.
Jonathon
Livingston
Seagull.
New York.
1973.
p. 12f.
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SUSPENSE TECHNIQUES: THE NEXT LEVEL
Suspense Analysis No.5:
Jack Vance's The Star King
Here's how the initial suspense is created. Two people are carefully sizing each other up while carrying on a conversation. The reason? Both are professing to be someone they're not. This ensures that • mortal danger is present as well as • an opposition (opposites attract) in addition to the fact that this situation is very unusual. The namely: (l)Will (2)Who (3)Will
predominant
suspense
is created
by the questions
the reader asks
a mysterious planet be found? (mystery/goal) is the star king? (mystery/danger) the hero trounce the anti-hero? (danger/goal)
A visual representation
of this scenario:
Mystery solved! Goal attained Mystery solved! Danger averted Danger averted! Goal attained Initial Suspense
Solution
So there are no fewer than three main suspense curves. Every individual suspense curve has been shaped by two suspense techniques. You have no choice but to read this book into the wee hours of the morning. Six suspense technique hold you in their thrall. Suspense Analysis No.6:
James Bond
Once you've analyzed a number of best sellers, you would be well advised not to fritter your time and attention away on things you already know, hedonistically wallowing in the pleasure of rediscovery. Your better move would be to keep on the lookout for new perspectives. This is the approach
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we'll take in examining the King of the Spies - Bond, James Bond. Before beginning the analysis, I need to highlight an important point. You ee, many critics literally shun the field of analysis, because they maintain, rroneously, that "originality" and "formula" are mutually exclusive concepts. But you should never look down your nose at formula, especially success formulas. A critic who grumbles that an author relies on the same "shtick" and hat the same "cliches" are trotted out over and over again has forgotten that using specific, tried-and-true formulas repeatedly is a virtue and a tactic (of uccessful entrepreneurs, for instance). James Bond is a film idea that is so mind-bogglingly successful that certain characters appear in film after film. This is an ideal subject for analysis. So what is the "standard" Bond movie? Let's list at least some of the characteristics. • 007 always ends up in the sack with gorgeous, exceptionally full-breasted beauties. Women weave their webs around him. Even villainesses succumb to his charms. • There is always an insane, megalomaniac gangster boss to be hunted down and whose base is destroyed at the end in an eye-popping special effects spectacle. • Bond is never ingratiating, not to the all-powerful gangster boss nor to his supenors. • No Bond film would be complete without outrageous high-tech gadgetry. It lends the movie a futuristic touch and a little shot of science fiction. • Unusual, but always elegantly constructed assassination schemes are the norm. We could go on, but Bond movies are well known. The telling point here is that one success formula is used over and over again, bringing in sales that have currently run into the hundreds of millions. But what tops it off for me, in addition to the delightfully gimmicky technology, is Bond's superior sense of British wit, set off by a dash of puckish merican humor. This appealing sense of humor offsets the extreme dangers 007 incessantly flirts with and allows the viewer to laugh. Two opposite extremes, grave danger - and a hero who masterfully overcomes it, dictate the plot's path. You could sniff out the "James Bond" recipe for success by analyzing how the different suspense techniques we've already discussed in this book are
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SUSPENSE TECHNIQUES: THE NEXT LEVEL
blended together in the films. suspense techniques!
Suspense Analysis No.7:
In fact, you'll
discover
everyone
of the 20
Edgar Wallace's "The Mysterious Magician"
Wallace's "Mysterious Magician" is an absolute masterpiece. the various suspense techniques in the film.
Let's analyze
(1 )At the beginning of the movie, you see a close-up of a door handle being turned. The camera then rotates to take in a pair of feet. Shortly thereafter, you hear a spine-tingling scream. Someone has just been murdered! A brief period of time passes then you see a female body slip beneath the water with an accompanying unsettling gurgling sound. Scotland Yard is tasked to solve the murder case. (mystery: who is the murderer?) (2)Hot on the heels of the mystery surrounding the identity of the murderer comes another discovery. The murderer's track leads Scotland Yard into the London underworld. As it turns out, the deceased woman's brother is the Wizard, a criminal mastermind by the name of Arthur Miller. Even the underworld lives in terror of this man. In spite of the fact that the police are on his trail, the Wizard travels to England from Australia in order to avenge his sister's death. But the Wizard evidently has an unusual talent. He can make himself invisible and thus elude his pursuers. So Scotland Yard is pursuing not only the murderer but the Wizard himself as well, who (3)ls also being hunted down by the underworld, whose denizens fear that any one of them might be the next victim. A diagram of the main suspense curves:
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From the point of view of suspense techniques, it's fascinating to observe the process by which the original goal at the beginning (collaring the murderer of the Wizard's sister) is superseded, or overlaid by a new, more important goal - nabbing the Wizard. This relegates the initial goal, defined in the first few minutes, to the third stratum, though it continues to be developed. The underworld gang is also on the hunt for the Wizard, setting an additional suspense curve in motion. This is a truly masterful structure. These three suspense curves are interlaced with the mystery technique. The reader wonders, "Who is the Wizard? What does he look like? How does he operate? Will he succeed in outwitting the underworld figures who murdered his sister?" As we can see, the Wizard has his own goal. And although he is shrouded in mystery, he is also exposed to danger by grotesquely (unusually) bumping off one underworld bad guy after another as the plot unfolds. The movie introduces yet another shady character to the action, confusing the viewer as to the actual identity of the Wizard (mystery). Another interesting tidbit, three Scotland Yard inspectors track the Wizard: • The clever one, • His vain know-it-all boss and • The retired inspector who met the Wizard long ago and itches to see him put away for good. Don't forget that the gangsters are also in hot pursuit, so there's quite an ensemble of interesting characters chasing the criminal mastermind. The fascinating ending does the brilliant film justice. The Wizard appears to fall for a trap. He announces that he will show up at a particular place. But only the mysterious figure the viewer has been led to believe is the Wizard actually appears. A double appears on the scene and the viewer realizes that one of the two is wearing a mask. The imposter is an Australian detective who followed the Wizard to London. The other guy is the Wizard. (1 st surprise) The Wizard has been identified. In the midst of the confusion his wife, Cora, shoots him and he collapses. But her pistol is loaded with blanks. The Wizard picks himself up off the floor, bolts and vanishes. (2nd surprise) The stunned detectives order a police officer to guard Cora. They go off in search of the Wizard. But there's another twist! The Wizard only appears to have vanished after bolting through the door. We learn that he overpowered
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the officer who was posted at the door, donned his uniform, re-entered the room and - surprise! - It is he who is assigned to keep an eye on Cora. (3'" surprise) Ending: The Wizard absconds with his wife. These three surprises at the end of the film are peerless delicacies worthy of our highest kudos. A visual representation of the ending of this film would look like this: Suspense Intensity
t" surprise 2'. surprise The ending to -rile Magnificent Magiciann
3"
surprise
Time axis
I will refrain from further dissection of the plot. But there is just one more thing. Everyone of the twenty suspense techniques appear more than once. The individual techniques have been intertwined so brilliantly that you're knocked out of your seat every time you see the film.
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Suspense Analysis No.8: Alfred Hitchcock's "The Man Who Knew Too Much" Story~' (1) Introduction: A doctor (accompanied by his child and wife, a once extremely popular singer) is approached by a man while on vacation in Morocco. Coincidentally. In a bus. They arrange to meet for supper. The man cancels afterwards. On one of the following days, the doctor spots the man again, who is now trying o escape some pursuers. One of the pursuers reaches the man and buries a knife in his back. The man scarcely manages to drag himself to the doctor and, his voice fading fast, tells him that an attempt will be made on an English politician's life. He manages to name an address in London before dying in the doctor's arms.
Analysis:
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High position in society/=unusual Setting is Morocco/=unusual Who is the man?/=mystery Why does he cancel?/=mystery Danger
(2) Principal Action The challenge is to prevent a political assassination. No sooner had he reached his hotel than the doctor finds out that his child has been kidnapped. This measure is evidently aimed at preventing him from transmitting the man's words (he might have been an intelligence operative) to anyone. The doctor makes a lone effort to save his child's life and to prevent the politician from being assassinated.
Primary suspense curve: Will he be able to find and free his child?/=goal (related to it: danger and strong passions on the part of the mother. The viewer also wonders, "Who's holding this child hostage?"/ =mystery). Secondary suspense curve Will he be able to prevent the assassination? (goal)
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(3) Conclusion In the dramatic conclusion, the political assassination is foiled and the child rescued. The mother, performing a piano and vocal concert in the Moroccan embassy, prompts her child, who is being held in an another room, to whistle along with the music.
Surprising "solution": The child whistles along with the music.
Let's represent this in a diagram:
I (1) Introduction
I
I (2) Principal Action
(1) Relatively long introduction with brief partial suspense curves.
(2) Two main suspense curves (combined with mystery and danger)
(3) Conclusion
• TIME
(3) Relatively long conclusion. Surprising twists: • Assassination attempt foiled at the opera by mother's scream • Discovery of the whistling child. Overpowering the kidnapper accomplished handily.
Again, the way individual suspense techniques are masterfully combined is essential. Great writers never employ and use suspense techniques mechanically or robotically.
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John Grisham's The Partner
This book is outrageously good. It's a jewel. No superlative is good enough for it. The primary suspense curve is produced by the reader's wondering "Will the main character (Patrick) outsmart his adversaries? Can he keep the money? Who will win?" At the beginning, the burning questions are: • What did Patrick do to get everyone after him and the money? • Where is the money? • What's going on, anyway? Various mysteries draw the reader deeper into the book. But the primary suspense is created by the question of whether Patrick will reach his goal and defeat his enemies. The reader is wrapped up in the mystery right at the beginning without even knowing what the details are. One mystery is unraveled after another in the course of the novel, while Patrick keeps his foes at bay by means of several highly intelligent, refined plans. One surprising twist after another thwart the opposing intentions of his numerous enemies. Detail-oriented research and expert legal know-how generate reality. At the end of the book, two surprising twists pop up: 1. He engineered the capture. 2. His girlfriend doesn't show up at the rendezvous and apparently keeps the money for herself. The moral of this story - surprising twists en masse ensure intense suspense! That is the overall plot. But it would also be worthwhile to pry apart and examine the partial plots. They are entirely different in some respects. Let's look at some of the suspense elements. 1st Chapter: Will the fugitive be arrested? (=goal) Intelligence service operations (=reality) Is he the one? (=problem) Does he have the money? Where? Why? (point of view of the pursuers)
(=mystery)
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2nd Chapter: (girlfriend's point of view) Do they have him? Or not? (danger/problem/not She transfers the money (=reality) She draws other people's attention to the fact that taken away (By who? Why is this important? =
knowing) . Patrick has been mystery/danger)
(Patrick's point of view) Deathly fear of torture/torture (=danger/unusual) Sodium pentothal ("truth drug"/= reality) The head bounty hunter (Stefano - point of view) is questioned by the FBI on Patrick's whereabouts (=danger) How do they know that? (=mystery) 3rd Chapter: Torture (Patrick - point of view) (extreme danger) Where is the money? (=mystery) (torture - point of view) (Girlfriend's point of view) Are the pursuers after me? (=danger) He hides the money (=reality/goal) You realize immediately that 1. Grisham works with combinations of suspense techniques. 2. Grisham nimbly changes points of view, i.e. narrating from the perspective of different characters. This makes it possible to pump up the suspense from different directions. 3. The research (reality) is flawless (place, circumstances, language, intelligence service operations, etc.) The lessons to be 1. Fashion a brilliant 2. Work with several ones at the end of
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learned from the genius we know as Grisham are overall plot. surprising twists in the story and at least two additional the story.
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3. Work with combinations of suspense techniques. Change perspectives and write from the points of view of different characters. 5. Carefully construct partial plots. 6. Perform excellent research.
Suspense
Analysis
No. 10:
E. E. Smith's
Triplanetaryt A Tale of Cosmic
Adventure The background of this novel is a war that is raging between two cosmic races, the Arisians and the Eddorians. The spiritually advanced Arisians embody good, while the equally intelligent Eddorians represent evil. Neither side fights directly against the other; instead, they use creatures from other planets whose development they influence or whose bodies they possess. Pirates, drug traffickers, etc. are influenced and used by the Eddorians, the evil side. Posiive, constructive beings receive help from the Arisians. The battle takes place on two levels, just like Homer's conception of the 'Iliad," in which the Trojans fight against the Greeks on the lower level while the gods have a go on the upper level. E. E. Smith, draws on various eras in human history (Rome, for example) re- fashioning accounts of wars and conflicts as battles between Arisians and Eddorians. That is the framework of the novel. Let's take a look at one of the plots that runs through one volume of this world-famous series. Costigan (protagonist, representative of the human race and positively influenced by the Arisians) is initially fighting Roger (his foil, a pirate whose body is possessed by an Eddorian). Thanks to new technical advances of which Roger is unaware, Costigan is able to save himself and Clio (a brave, beautiful alien girl) from imprisonment by the pirate (initial suspense). The primary suspense curve in this book consists of the battle between Costigan and Roger. This is the lower level good guy/bad guy battle. A third party appears on the scene, to our utter astonishment. Costigan must also defend himself from the Nerians, a fishlike race capable of interstellar navigation. As you can see, this is an exceptional case. This reminds us that it may not be enough to work with two opposing parties. The real genius lies in the fact that it is not Costigan, but a companion from his camp who defeats Roger and the Nerians.
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This is one way of visualizing the plot of this book:
hehero.s companions save the day
'
Let's examine the structure in more detail. The primary suspense curve includes: Will the Arisians (represented by Costigan) defeat the Eddorians (represented by Roger)? Secondary suspense curve: Will Costigan defeat the Nerians (a new, third power)? Of course, the more common way to craft this piece would be to place the hero (Costigan) in conflict with the two different enemies (Roger/Nerians) and to have him defeat both with the support of his companions. But the author took the road less traveled. It's fascinating that it turns out that Costigan, the hero, is not the decisive factor in the battle, but rather his companions, the group, who save the day. The basic structure remains the same. Good versus evil, opposites attract, and "Will the hero(es) attain his (their) goal or not?" Always remember to look for the basic structure beneath the apparent complexity.
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The Merchant of Souls
Now let's change the tempo and experience some "live suspense." I've included a short novella below for you to analyze for suspense techniques. Professionals often prefer to just enjoy reading the story the first time through, letting the story reach out and grab them, and then dissect the story and lay the structure bare on the second reading. You could do the same thing if you ish. By the second time through, analyze the story, which is set in the 17th entury. Then compare your analysis with mine. The question you should eep in mind as you read the story analytically is, "How is suspense established in this story?" Have fun!
The Merchant of Souls 1 I had never felt such a burning interest, such fascination, such a hypnotic attraction for any person as I felt for the legendary and controversial Count of Saint German. This swashbuckler and alchemist was described by some, the French police, for example, as a highly calculating and extraordinarily vicious spy and swindler. Others held him to be nothing less than a wizard endowed with supernatural abilities, a warlock whose powers surpassed those of mere mortals and who was privy to the deepest mysteries of the human soul. Intensive research had unequivocally revealed to me that his true forte was alchemy, the art of making gold. The enigma of the origin of this skill gives rise to the most bizarre conjectures. Its practitioners were rumored to seek the wondrous elixir of immortality which the Count of Saint Germain was said to hold in his possession. The Count himself was the subject of the most astonishing rumors. The very fact that L, at long last, was about to meet him (and hopefully turn the conversation to the elixir) made my blood run ice-cold. I had a favorite niece in Paris, as precocious as she was attractive,
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who had sent me an impassioned letter about the warlock. Reading between the lines, I could see that she was torn between horrified repugnance and unreserved admiration for him. I stood awaiting the appearance of the Count, impatiently skimming the letter for at least the fiftieth time, in a vain attempt to distract myself from the overheated anticipation of the long sought-after interview. My lovely niece wrote: ... even the most stubborn realists agree that he is the Sphinx of our century; not only does Monsieur le Count speak fluent English, Spanish and French, to say nothing of his impeccable German, but he is also competent in the written and spoken languages of antiquity! And, dear uncle, I have also discovered what a brilliant storyteller he is. He recounts little known and occasionally risque details about the lives of Cleopatra and Henry VIII. Mystery surrounds this adventurer. If one chooses to listen to the court gossip, he is an immeasurably wealthy nobleman, capable of turning base metals into gold and manufacturing precious jewels of uncommon size and purity! I hardly know what to think of all this, particularly in light of the strange rumors which revolve around the Count's age, a subject in which you are apparently highly interested. Reliable sources have informed me that a stranger once told the Count's servant, Roger, that his master was a liar to claim to be 4000 years old. Whereupon the servant retorted, 'I should know better than you, Monsieur, for a hundred years ago, when] took up service with my lord, he told me that he was 3000 years old. Perchance he forgot 900 years or merely banished them from his memory!' Enemies as well as admirers discuss these things with the most serious expressions, dear uncle! ... In order to form an objective picture of the Count, I had consulted many sources. His reputation seemed to shift as quickly as the shimmering facets of his priceless gems. Many accounts, often obtained directly from eyewitnesses, were no less extraordinary than that of my niece. For example, in political circles it was fabled that the Count, already
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over a hundred years of age, had brokered the sensational peace between Prussia and Austria and had a hand in-toppling Peter II of Russia. There were official documents which certified that St. Germain had died at the hands of the Landgrave of Hessen-Kassel in 1784. Other documents, dating from the year 1785, only one year later, convincingly evinced that he attended a large freemason congress in Paris on the 15th of February at which virtually all the secret orders met to confer on the political future of Europe. The fact that he was still alive had been clear to me since the day he had announced his impending visit, a favor he had owed me - or, rather, my family - for quite some time. Impatient and anxious, I awaited his arrival with extreme nervousness. I was quite prepared either to express the profound respect due such an extraordinary person or to tear the mask from the face of a swindler and charlatan. As I ruminated on the possibilities, the double doors to my study flew open and my stalwart servant calmly announced the arrival of the Count of Saint Germain.
2 I must admit that I had pictured St. Germain differently. The Count was by no means what one might commonly call a handsome man, despite his obviously refined taste and style of dress. I was particularly struck by his eyes, as dark as night and filled with a thousand demons one moment, only to change their expression, mood and passion entirely in the next. One's immediate reaction, when leveled with such a gaze as his is to ward it off with a protective gesture or cross oneself. I was simultaneously shuck by another thought - that only a thoroughly unruly and devious spirit would perch in that head. I could feel the most conflicting feelings struggling within me. For just one fleeting moment I imagined myself capable of defining and understanding this man who stood before me, the soul of this swashbuckling daredevil. I was certain that acquiring control over the powers and forces raging within him, forces he had bent to his will, had cost him dearly. His face resembled a bird of prey. It was a face that would have suited a pirate. But it belonged
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to this elegant nobleman, decked out in an opulent yet tasteful furtrimmed robe, which was elaborately ornamented with precious jewels. Even the sparkling buttons which held it together were cut from brilliant priceless stones. "Interesting to see," said the Count with a glance at my niece's letter, scattering my thoughts, "that you have made inquiries about me in advance of my visit. Perhaps you know me better than I know myselfl" He smiled an almost imperceptible ironic smile as he bowed briskly, leaving me fumbling for an apology. "That may be so," I responded, a little embarrassed. "Under ordinary circumstances, it might seem a bit unorthodox; nonetheless, you must admit that the highly unusual anecdotes circulating about you give rise to endless speculation and pique curiosity. In the same breath, however, I should like to beg your forgiveness in this matter." "An extremely polite century," opined the Count, smiling strangely to himself, very much as though he were casting a rapid glance over the events of past centuries. "But let's not stand on ceremony," he continued. "You are aware that I am deeply indebted to your family, Monsieur. Your father once rendered me an invaluable service in an extremely delicate matter. The matter you have requested my assistance in is equally delicate, I am sure. Would I be correct in assuming that, in fact, the question you are about to pose is a matter of life and death?" "Before you answer, let me warn you, however, that the lesson I learned through many rounds of verbal wrestling with my modest friend Socrates," the Count went on, his predatory countenance lighting up with the same ironic smile, "is that I know only that I know nothing. But feel free to ask. I am at your service" To this day, I still do not know what spring fed his impudent selfconfidence. Minute gestures, precisely measured and performed expertly, underscored his insolent words at precise moments and lent him the air of a veteran actor. As he spoke, the slightest inflection on a single syllable could imbue a word or a thought with color, ambiguity and mystery, This was offset by the mocking tone he habitually affected. Flamboyance, an aura of mystery and an alien energy wove invisible threads around
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him. In his presence, one felt a certainty that this man was not only capable of reading thoughts, but also of peering into the very depths of the soul. I sought to hide my confusion by lending a firm tone to my voice and proclaiming, "Monsieur Count, allow me to speak bluntly. You are either the most perfidious fraud of our century or you are endowed with powers and forces we mere mortals shudder even to imagine." The Count was unfazed. i I continued, "You have consented to answer one question, a question which shall determine your forthrightness and character. I wish nothing less from you, Count Saint Germain, than a glimpse under the veil that protects the mysteries of - death!" Several minutes passed before the Count moved so much as a muscle. He stood frozen like a marble statue. The suspense was unbearable. My mind was enshrouded, as if by some magic potion. My heart convulsed and seemed to beat perceptibly slower. In the deathly quiet I heard nothing but the pounding of my own heart until, at last, the Count spoke, "Only an extraordinarily brave or, perhaps, remarkably dense man would dare to ask such a question, mon cher ami! I would strongly admonish you to rein in your curiosity." Without pausing for a word of objection or approval from my lips, the Count continued, "Be assured that the nursery tales of babes and evil stepmothers have no relation to reality. Reality is a thousand-headed hydra, a monster that feeds on your terror even as it devours you alive." I will never know what demon moved me to speak my next words, but after a breathless pause, I heard myself whisper, "I beg you to tell me the truth, Count! I must know the truth no matter how horrifying it might be." The Count nodded decisively, rose to his feet and began to pace wordlessly, his arms crossed behind his back. He gave the impression of a man weighing dire options. Suddenly he stopped and turned to face me and warned me in a stern tone, "The truth, you madman, could inflict wounds upon you that a human heart is too small to bear. If you go through with this, you will never be the same man again. Know that you
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are risking everything!" But his strange words only served to fuel my burning desire to be initiated into the secret of death. I demanded that St. Germain put an end to this undignified game of hide-and-seek at once. The warlock fell silent again for what seemed an eternity, as though he was waiting for me to come to my senses and reconsider. Finally, he murmured, "I must regretfully acknowledge that 1 have failed in my attempts to change your mind. Stand up, then, and bring your ear directly to my lips." Dazed, I leapt to my feet and leaned in close to the brigand's face. The blood coursed through my veins like molten lava. 1 could feel the heat of his breath on my skin. 1 waited, breathless, for him to reveal the secrets of the greatest mystery of life, yearning to gain control over death itself. 1 was shocked and horrified to see the Count's form begin to shift and change. He seemed to stretch and solidify into the shape of a dark, forbidding tower. Before 1 could utter a cry or attempt to defend myself, a steel stiletto flashed in his right hand. The warlock plunged the dagger deep into my breast. My hands reached up to grasp the knife he had buried in my body. Unutterable shock was written on my features. The Count laughed hoarsely and malevolently. He hissed these words that 1 will never forget, "Death must be experienced to be understood, you damned fool! But we shall meet again ... !" 1 do not know if the nearness of death caused me to hallucinate, but 1 saw his raven-black eyes multiply and swim before my eyes in his hawklike face 1 was unspeakably horrified to see my body collapse dead in his arms as I watched from a strange new vantage point twelve feet above the floor. 3 For some time, (I can't say how long - Hours? Weeks? Years?) 1 savored the cosmic quiet, soft as down and gentle as falling snow. 1 was disturbed by neither unsettling images nor meddlesome thoughts. This milieu was pure and cool. But it was also alien and incomprehensible. I sensed vaguely that I was still alive, that I had withdrawn to my self, just as a snail or a clam withdraws into its shell. 1 knew that something
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capable of thinking "I am" existed, although I was unable to determine in what state or element. I reveled in the sensation of being weightless, bodiless. A feeling of joy I had never known before permeated my very being. I would have erupted in waves of ecstatic laughter, but I had no body, no air-filled lungs, and no diaphragm to contract. I had no mouth to emit the mirthful sounds. I knew no limit to these strange sensations in which I was immersed, cozy, smug and dumb. There was no above, no below, no right or left. The Count had indeed been correct. .. No sooner had this thought shot through my consciousness than memories of my death re-surfaced. Events I had briefly experienced in what seemed to be distant centuries danced before my eyes like sparkling points of light. The Count had kept his word. I was privy to the secret of death, but I took no comfort in that fact. Everything I had owned, my castle, my titles, all my worldly goods and chattels had been taken from me forever. With this realization, it was as if a dam had burst in my consciousness. Suddenly I remembered Saint Germain's words of warning, "You are risking everything!" But had he not also said that we would meet again? Despite the flood of vague premonitions, I grasped at this thought with all of the desperation of a drowning man. Once more I saw his raven-black eyes before me. I painfully relived my death one last time, felt the cold steel of the dagger he had thrust into my chest. Suddenly I could see so clearly that it was as if I had never seen before. I realized how truly little a body is worth. It is nothing but a tiny scrap of flesh that must be tended to all of one's life as one would tend a helpless infant, feeding it, keeping it clean, and hanging upon its shoulders gaudy, ridiculous garments. With that thought, the Count's face blurred in my mind's eye. The image of him bending over my corpse sank back into the mud. At length all of these troubling images withdrew into the distance and grew ever fainter until the mists enveloped and obscured them. I felt no hatred for the old warlock. I left the comfortable place where Lhad solved a thousand riddles - riddles whose solutions only seemed to spawn thousands more of their kind.
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Now that I am more conversant in the mechanics of the purely spiritual state, I understand the force that had drawn me inexorably to Paris. I was instantaneously transported by a thought, the execution of it taking place before the concept itself had even fully unfolded within my mind. I found myself amid a buzzing, surging crowd in the heart of the French capital. Surprised, I recognized my beloved Paris in every colorful detail: the whimsical fountains, Notre Dame, the picturesque bridge across the Seine and countless other familiar sights. Playful, almost giddy, I derived the greatest amusement from blowing exquisitely tasteless hats from the heads of fashionable Parisians. I also took a diabolical pleasure in blowing the ladies' skirts up over their heads, relishing the sight of the squealing damsels desperately struggling to hold their skirts down, mortified that their lacey multi-layered petticoats and puckered kneelength knickers were on display for every passerby to see. I don't know precisely how long this period of carefree tomfoolery went on until, one day, I felt a hypnotic attraction to a carriage drawn by four high-spirited horses, or, rather, to its driver, an exceptionally striking young woman. Judging by the exquisite lines of the horses, the coat of arms emblazoned on the carriage and the driver's fine clothing, this lovely Countess belonged to a family of the highest rank of the nobility. She sat utterly alone as she drove the opulent but unusual carriage. I was irrepressibly drawn to her face, feeling intoxicated as I drank in her finely chiseled features, which seemed oddly familiar. The shock of death had apparently caused considerable damage to my memory, for I was utterly unable to recall this woman's identity. While still immersed in contemplating her breathtaking beauty, I realized to my astonishment that the Countess had lost control of the carriage. The horses, tormented by stinging insects, bolted and refused to be reined in. For the first time, I cursed my non-corporeal state. Without the benefit of physical force and motion, I was powerless to come to her aid and was forced to stand by and watch in horror, as the horses raced on at a full gallop. Two or three valiant passers-by tried in vain to place themselves in the path of the careening vehicle only to be hurled violently aside. By now, the Countess had given up all attempts to bring her runaway horses to a halt and was clinging desperately to her
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seat as the carriage sped on at breakneck speed. Screaming promenaders scattered in all directions. I was overcome with a sudden nausea and dizziness. I became disoriented and would have screamed had I been able to and had any poor creature been able to hear me. I was the only one who saw the yawning pothole, deep enough to break the legs of the galloping horses, directly in the path of the carriage. But all entreaties, prayers and curses were in vain. Dazed, I perceived the horses gallop straight for the crater in agonizing slow motion as if time were moving at a fraction of its usual speed. Their skidding hooves launched clumps of clay and mud into the air and I heard the sickening sound of bones snapping as the scene dissolved into a writhing tumbling mass of sweaty equine bodies, an explosion of carriage splinters, and a shattering shock wave of pain and desperation. The Countess was thrown high into the air and then flung head-first to the ground, where she lay motionless. At first glance, it appeared as though she had broken her neck. But her injuries, though grave, were not fatal. I was relieved to find that she had suffered only a fractured arm, a few shattered vertebrae and innumerable abrasions and contusions. Most astonishing to me was that the poor woman, or, rather, her actual self, her soul or spirit, believed, as did the horrified witnesses who were gathered around, that she had been mortally wounded and had perished. I had witnessed her panicked retreat from her body and sensed the overwhelming dread which impelled her to escape and not be forced to face the sight of her broken body lying on the ground in the midst of this scene of chaos of doom. The shocked onlookers stood numbly around the motionless body and foundered horses. Finally several doctors shouldered their way into the growing crowd and carried the spiritless body away on a litter. Spurred on by some primordial knowledge or millennia-old reflexes, the previously unfathomable thought blazed through my mind that the injured body on the litter was still viable and usable. To my eternal amazement, I brazenly resolved to capitalize on the Countess' death. The pain of my physical incapacity and inability to intervene in the tragedy which I had just been forced to witness helplessly, burned within me. Perhaps in my frustration and loss I was not thinking clearly, but I was
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determined to act. I crept up on the soulless body like a thief, slipped into it and was racked with excruciating pain. The ownerless body drove its pain into the soul within it. If I wanted to possess and operate it, I would be forced to accept the pain. Overcome by this realization, I briefly experienced a strange lapse of consciousness, but I managed somehow to hold on to the body. In my half-conscious state, as I held on to these strange limbs with all the strength I was capable of summoning up, I heard one of the doctors call out, as if from a great distance, "The Countess moved! The dead woman just moved!" Then, mercifully, I fell into a deep, pitch-black unconsciousness. 4 I awoke drained and groggy, an invisible weight pressing on my temples. I was at first unable to recall anything whatsoever. I could only sense a yawning abyss and a glimmering that something inconceivable had occurred. The more intense my efforts to summon the events back to my memory, the more painfully my head throbbed. It felt as though some sadistic sculptor was chiseling away at my skull. Gradually, a few shreds of images began to materialize. I was vaguely aware that I had heedlessly thrown myself into an adventure with no foreseeable outcome. It dawned on me slowly, although I knew that no one, human or divine, would believe me, that I had stolen into a body that the previous owner had fled in shock. Though suffering from the most excruciating headache, I took a cautious look at my sickroom and was startled to discover that my arm had been bandaged with white gauze. Adding insult to injury, my skin itched and burned in a hundred places from abrasions and lacerations and my lower extremities appeared to consist solely of a thousand tiny pinpricks. When I attempted to sit upright, the walls began to close in on me. The room was spinning like a carousel. I fought against the bile rising in my throat. "Praise be to Lord Jesus, the Countess has awoken!" I heard a muffled voice cry out as several blurry figures rushed toward me. But before I could speak, the pain thrust me into unconsciousness again and I fell into a deep sleep.
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When I awoke the second time, the walls around me seemed to be strangely bright and white. Nonetheless, I grasped the fact that I was alive. And I had a new body! It pleased me to think that, even though it would take some time for this battered body to restore itself, I was, at least, identifiable again. I had a name and a title. I could touch and I could feel the touch of another. I knew, incontrovertibly and indisputably, that I existed! As if by chance, I suddenly recalled the Count of Saint Germain, his raven-black eyes, his brigand's face. I felt the stab wound in my chest, a chest I no longer possessed. All the same, I could still acutely feel the burning pain of the stiletto. I was dully aware of my death and that I had seized or stolen this forsaken body. My knowledge was very limited because I could not freely avail myself of my previous memories. Worse yet, I knew very little about the world of the Countess into which it was now necessary to assimilate myself. Despite these complications, the gods - or whoever was responsible for my outlandish fate - had reserved some additional surprises for me surprises that would soon preoccupy me utterly and completely. I was quite unprepared to receive a handsome gentleman with a fine, well-trimmed moustache who, without preamble, planted an unabashedly passionate and tender kiss on my mouth. The most conflicting feelings stirred within me. Although I was disinclined to exchange intimacies with a complete stranger, I had to admit that the contact was not unpleasant. At the same time, I was stunned to realize that true feminine feelings began to awaken within me and that I was beginning to perceive the world more and more through the eyes of a woman. The peaceful bed rest worked wonders. Every nap refreshed me and brought me closer to full recovery. I was now capable of distinguishing between the faces of my attendants. I began to cautiously familiarize myself with the life of the Countess and the labyrinthine etiquette. But my progress was inhibited by ominous half memories. I began to look forward to the vists of my dashing admirer, whose moustache tickled my lips as he greeted me with increasingly passionate kisses. I was shocked by the erotic feminine sensations which stirred within me. My ambivalence toward adjusting to the changes in my sensory
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world puzzled me vaguely. I was conscious of the time and patience that .would be necessary to accustom myself to my new role. All of this may have been easier to bear if I could have confided my partial, imperfect and strange memories to anyone. But I was held back by the fear that I might be committed to the Charenton insane asylum, never to be seen again. The cloying expressions of sympathy uttered by my new relatives, who occasionally seemed very familiar, even eerily so for some inexplicable reason, subsided after a period of time. The stir caused by a lady of good breeding, a Countess, having barely missed breaking her beautiful neck in a calamitous carriage wreck preoccupied the gossipmongers less and less, until, after some months, it quietly faded away. As if to compensate, my hot-blooded admirer grew ever more impetuous and bold. But the promise of the spring of our lives was overshadowed by the course of events. My recovery was progressing nicely. My mood alternated between cheerfulness and boredom. One day as I sat demurely in my bed, propped against luxurious pillows, enjoying the lingering kiss of my handsome young lover, my maid unexpectedly entered my room to inform me that a visitor urgently wished to see me. 5 I began trembling uncontrollably, though, logically, I knew that there was no cause for such apprehension. What was only a premonition became certainty, however, when the maid timidly informed me that the visitor in question was a nobleman who declined to provide a name. But, she said, he had offered a token in exchange for my granting his request for a private interview. With these words, she handed me a brilliant gemstone of unusual size and purity. I was overcome with irrational panic. Only St. Germain would announce himself in this fashion. My entire body tensed; nonetheless, I endeavored to remain calm and asked my beau to leave me alone with the visitor. My heart was in my throat and my palms were clammy with perspiration, but I gathered my courage and summoned the Count to me. Perhaps it was only coincidence, but the Count was attired in the
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same opulent robe he had worn the night we met, that first encounter when he had demonstrated the foolishness of my curiosity so dramatically. He entered the room, glowering cryptically at me with his raven-black eyes. He bowed curtly and asked, "Might I take the liberty to inquire about the Countess' health and congratulate her on her rapid recovery?" He colored the word "Countess" with a familiar, but ineffable, ironic undertone and it plunged me into immediate uncertainty and extreme confusion. Stifling the trembling in my voice and struggling to regain my composure, my response was a curt "But of course, Count!" The silence that followed was oppressive. His mocking eyes bore into me until, at last, I snapped, "To what bravura or notoriety do I owe the honor of your visit?" The Count slowly removed his silken gloves and answered nonchalantly, "My dear Countess, I held it to be my duty to determine whether you are satisfied with the answer to your question and with my sorcery?" I blanched and plucked at my nightgown nervously. This merchant of souls had the unparalleled impertinence to mock me in the same breath as he flattered me. "Our trade is complete," I answered as quietly as possible, trying unsuccessfully to master the tension in my voice. "As to my death, your proof lacks both certain artistic and scientific dimensions. But please permit me, Count, to ask how you could be so certain that I would be here?" As I spoke, St. Germain appeared to be engrossed in admiring his brilliant buttons. Ignoring my question, he abruptly wrenched one of the precious stones from his robe and barked, "One of the most invaluable lessons in life, Countess, is the understanding that one must occasionally permit oneself to know absolutely nothing about certain subjects!" With these words, he thrust the brilliant button into my hands, as though it embodied and symbolized this lesson. Inexplicably, he turned the discussion in an entirely different direction. We chatted about the most trivial subjects; however, I was perplexed by the Count's insistence on repeatedly turning the conversation to the subject of my uncle. At that moment, I could not fathom what devilishness lay hidden behind his
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ambiguous smile. The most impeccable conduct characterized his behavior, which, fastidious as it was, did not reveal that he was aware of the confusion he had caused within me. Stubbornly, he nudged the conversation back to my uncle. At every mention of his name, a speculative gleam shone in his dark eyes, causing me - though I do not know why - to shudder. The bantering tone of our talk emboldened me to finally dare to venture, "It is a mystery to me, dear Count, why you display such a burning interest in my uncle. Honestly, and to speak in plain terms, I know neither his profession nor his importance, although the mention of his name touches a strange chord in me. But I have neither the memory of my last existence at my disposal - I cannot even recall my name - nor do I have at my command the experiences of the Countess, whose role I am attempting to play like a comedienne of mediocre talent. So why do you insist on speaking of this person?" "Curb your impatience, Countess!" replied the Count, irritated. "You of all people should have learned that one should never fail to avail yourself of an opportunity to remain silent. He looked searchingly and intensely at me again before continuing, "Countess, in the interest of telling you the truth - apparently no one has dared to tell you, for fear of impeding the progress of your recovery - I must tell you that this relative, your uncle - is dead! He was the victim of a - shall we say - an unnatural death!" St. Germain paused for a moment as I slowly began to grasp the gravity of what the Count was about to tell me. Ashen-faced, I demanded that he finish his revelations. "Scurrilous tongues even maintain," continued the Count, the familiar cruel, ironic smile playing about his lips, "that your uncle met his demise after a nobleman of our rank paid him a visit. .. after the visit of a certain - Count of Saint Germain! In fact, your relatives found him murdered with a stiletto buried in his chest. You, Countess, ought to have known him very well ... " I do not know how long I sat there, staring into nothingness. I was overcome with an icy cold and then a searing heat; I was light-headed and shivered as though with fever. There was no doubt: in my last
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existence, I was the uncle of the Countess whose body I had seized after the carriage accident. In my previous existence, I was my own uncle or, to be more precise, the uncle of the person whose body I now occupied! I could see it all very clearly now. I realized why the sight of the Countess driving the carriage had drawn me to her like a magnet (she was my own niece, after all!) and why even the Countess's relatives had seemed so familiar to me. I heard something shatter in my skull. Abruptly even the most insignificant detail, the most unimportant event in my previous life came rushing back, bombarding me with so many thousands of memories that I had to struggle not to be suffocated by the violence of the images. I later learned that my murdered uncle had bequeathed his entire estate to his niece, at length allowing me to inhabit the same castle and the same quarters as before my demise. While looking in a drawer in my (old) desk, I found the letter which my niece had sent me from Paris and from which I reproduced some excerpts at the beginning of this account. Incidentally, the Count took his leave unobtrusively and quickly in precisely the instant in which the memory of my previous existence returned. He disappeared before I could shake off my paralysis and inform him of my newfound knowledge. To this day, I still do not know whether St. Germain was merely an unscrupulous, conspiratorial spy or a clairvoyant sorcerer and alchemist. Too much remained unsaid, imponderable and ambiguous, even though I had experienced the warlock's power over souls in an undeniably real and painfully personal way. Despiteall my searching, I never set eyes on the Count again.
We'll begin after you've completed your analysis. What produces this suspense curve? Correct! The main character's goal is to reveal the secret of life after death. The plot contains a mystery as well. Additionally, the focus in the initial phase of the story is on the unusual, mysterious person of the Count of Saint Germain and on an unusual action, i.e. a murder. The plot shifts direction several times throughout the remainder of the story,
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specifically - when the protagonist is murdered, - when he takes over a new body, - when he encounters the Count again and finally - when he finds out, to his utter astonishment, that he assumed his niece's body and has inherited everything he owned in his past life. It is evident that the author of this story must have conceived of the conclusion before putting pen to paper. At least two ideas would have been the basis of his inspiration (cf. Technique No.2). The point of view and perspective technique, described in more detail in Chapter IV, was used in conjunction with the danger and action present in the plot. But let's concentrate our attention on the primary suspense curve. As we've already seen, the goal/mystery in this work consists of uncovering the secret of life after death. When a goal has been reached and a mystery unraveled, it is standard practice to set new goals, although this was not necessary considering the brevity of this novella, in which one surprise followed closel on the heels of the previous one. You, the author, would be well advised not to consider suspense technique from a purely mechanical point of view. Sometimes, a goal loses its power or is overshadowed and supplanted by a new goal. There are too many variations for you to boil them all down to one simple rule of thumb. So what did you discover in your analysis? Perhaps your analysis differs from mine. If that's the case, then I have a surprise in store for you. The story The Merchant of Souls, 10 is the product of my pen. I considered its design very carefully before writing it. The term surprise brings us to our next topic, which will require some elaboration.
3.
Surprise Revisited
The surprise could be described as the core, the culmination, if you will, of all suspense techniques. If this technique is not applied skillfully, the reader might be disappointed 10
Cf. Ha. A.
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The Merchant oj Souls.
Wiesbaden.
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by the twist, the surprising spin, the change of direction in the plot. On the other hand, if skillfully applied, she will be satisfied and astonished. Let's take a closer look at technique. Many contemporary best-selling authors and successful screenwriters focus on producing genuinely surprising surprises. A paragon of this technique is the television series "The Persuaders." One episode in this series was based on the following premise: The Persuaders, Roger Moore and Tony Curtis, are hired by a woman whose inheritance has been threatened. Her brother has suddenly arrived on the scene and plans to claim his share of her recently deceased father's estate. The problem is that her brother had been declared dead by the courts. The woman thinks that the stranger is a charlatan and hires the Persuaders to investigate. The results - Surprise No.1: Some details indicate that the respectable notary was at the root of the scam and had declared the wrong man dead. Surprise No.2: The PI's discover that the sister is a phony but the brother is the real McCoy. Surprise No.3: In the blink of an eye, a third "detective," who was hired by the sister, draws a Colt on the Persuaders. But they overpower him. So, the screenwriter serves up three surprises. He even makes room for a humorous fourth one. Surprise No.4: Tony Curtis had admired Roger Moore's shapely young "housekeeper." Roger Moore is just about to complain that she has been stolen away from him when he spots her in Tony Curtis' room ... This is an additional gag. The moral of this story is that old hands in the literary arts will employ several surprises. Let's take a look at a second example, this time "The Sting" starring Paul Newman and Robert Redford. A bookmaking joint is opened with the goal, which is simultaneously the primary suspense curve, of taking some money off a repulsive, wealthy gangster's hands. The viewer wonders, "Can they pull this scam off? Will their plans bear fruit? Will they be able to flimflam the gangster out of his money?" The reader quakes along with Redford and Newman, hoping that the gangster will fall for the trick. Their mark has been lured in with the story that this new bookmaking joint allegedly uses certain technical innovations that guarantee the gangster big winnings. How has the conclusion been designed?
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(l)The ploy is successful. The gangster's pockets are emptied. However, the author serves up a few more surprises. (2)FBI agents suddenly appear on the scene. Is a betrayal behind it all? There is a wild shootout. (3)These are fake shootings of Newman and Redford. The viewer realize that the FBI agents who appeared to have killed the two men have been part of the plot to mislead the gangster and nip any potential revenge in the bud. The plot shifts direction twice during the conclusion. This reveals that Aristotle and other theoreticians were correct in demanding that the plot must always shift direction at least once at the end, in a positive direction, in the case of a comedy, or in a negative direction, in the case of a tragedy. They were also correct to demand that there should always be some form of "retarding momentum" directly prior to that point in the plot. Actually a plot might change directions constantly, five times or even more, at any point in the work. Best-selling authors are a prime example of this fact. Hence there can be no universally valid "dramaturgy," no suspense curves that only work when placed just so. It's a fact that if you were to collect "surprises' systematically like so many stamps, you would certainly learn a lot. It' surprising to discover that the real ringleader of a gang is really the butler. It's equally surprising to discover that the halfwit brother of the king is the real mastermind (as practiced in an Asimov novel). But is there a formula you can use to create surprises? If you want to lay a good foundation for surprises, weave several plot lines and/or major characters into your story so that you have a wide range of options to surprise your readers. A one-track plot is hard to lead to a surprise. You can even quite literally lure the reader into a trap. What you do is you introduce a plot line or character that has been conceived expressly for no purpose other than to fool the reader into thinking he knows that this is the one that will lead to the climax, to the surprise. On the sly, so to speak, you build an unprepossessing plot line that proceeds to the true twist, to the real surprise. The sci-fi author Isaac Asimov is the king of this technique. He loves inserting an unprepossessing character into the plot who he gradually draws into the center of attention, but who no one would ever believe to be the mastermind in the story. This unprepossessing character often accompanies the hero through his adventures. You would never think that he is the enemy. The human inadequacies that this companion contrives to display act to conceal the fact
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that he is the true enemy. Asimov includes a "secret" plot line that is not only entirely "open," but is utterly removed from the reader's scope of interest due to its unprepossessing quality and to the fact that the reader always believes he knows how the plot will end. This is an old detective story technique. The classic example is client X of detective Y, who is supposed to find murderer Z. In the end, you discover that the client X is really murderer Z. You could call this a "super twist" or a "mega-switcheroo," if you're feeling giddy. But only by introducing circumstances that initially make the real ending logically improbable will you be able to use this technique professionally. The reader is bound to follow logical paths; however, the writer is the master of logic and can bend it to suit him. The principle of the surprising twist can also be used within a story. More often than not, authors will cause the plot to shift directions within a story and not just at the end. There are evidently such things as worn-out plot lines. It's a good idea to avoid these apparently "logical" lines.
I could illustrate my point with further examples of surprises or more suspense techniques. I could perform incisive analyses and point out that, almost without exception, contemporary best-selling authors serve up a slewof surprises. But
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I think that you've gotten the message. The important thing is to watch and read good pieces, to analyze the fundamental principles behind them, i.e. to filter out the suspense curves. These can then be abstracted. The specific can be used to work back to the general. You can derive various concrete applications from a general suspense technique and use these applications to build suspense into a story. Perhaps there might even be more discoveries waiting to be made in the area of suspense techniques. Investigating and researching the subject would certainly turn up some useful results. From up close, we can see that each best-selling author has his or her own best-seller formulas and his or her own repertoire of techniques. For that reason, it would be a fascinating exercise to research the Bible, the Bhagavad-Gita, the Tao Te Ching and the Koran, holy books all, in search of techniques. But an investigation of those best seller that stirred the world and have survived for several thousands of years could only be performed from the standpoint of researching literary technique. It should not be a blasphemous undertaking. It's conceivable that more effective authorial secrets might be brought to light in this way; more techniques than you could devise in an entire lifetime.
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V. Success Formulas For Best-Selling Authors
Permit me once again to promote myself. As I mentioned earlier, I have written about 100 books and it would be safe to assume that I know a thing or two about the subject. Even the harshest critic has to admit that I have learned something about non-fiction as well, if only accidentally. I could go on and on heaping praise on myself if I weren't so afflicted with modesty. Of course I developed my own personal "credo" long ago. For a time, I gave seminars on this subject that helped several up-and-coming authors to write good or better non-fiction. Non-fiction, I might add, that well-known publishers are selling now. I also work with a team of authors on a regular basis in order to complete extensive projects for a publishing house. "My" authors expect me to tell them how to write smart, readable, outstanding non-fiction books, books the reader loves and which, above all, sell. In the course of my career I have developed certain know-how, which, if used properly, enables writers to produce best sellers in a reliable fashion. This is my own personal credo, of course. I'm not pretending to have developed a cure for cancer, nor am I claiming to have developed the only way of writing in which salvation is to be found. But I am claiming to have created a method that can help you gain ground and lay the groundwork for a highly successful writing career. What ought to be gleaned from this is that there are many success formulas for non-fiction sellers. I will be introducing some of them at the end of Chapte V. It will, however, be easier to understand them if I begin by discussing my method. This will give you a kind of fixed point of reference. But first would like to draw your attention to a very remarkable circumstance. Embittered critics will always claim that it is flat-out impossible to isolate success formulas. They'll use terms such as "cliche" or "same old line." The will pooh-pooh the entire venture from the very beginning. But they are wrong about this. Entire publishing blueprints, series blueprints for books, are basec on formulas. In other words, publishers and editors are constantly brewing up clever ideas and blueprints for a series - all the while insisting that successful
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formulas be consistently maintained. It's a bizarre situation when you have to emphasize the fact, but of course there are success formulas. Canny entrepreneurs don't operate any differently. They observe attentively to see what works and then seek to establish what will guarantee success. Critics who proclaim that there are no success formulas are the grave diggers of success. Claiming that these formulas do not exist is just as flawed as trying to persuade people that flourishing companies or successful authors don't exist. It goes without saying that you can't compare' success formulas to a mechanical apparatus. They are not a perpetual motion machine. You shouldn't allow any formula to squeeze or force you into a mold. Professionals juggle formulas playfully. They don't worship them. But they do perk up their ears whenever they hear about the successful actions of other writers. I should first mention here that I use a whole tool kit of know-how to write good non-fiction books. This treasure box of mine is full to the brim with the tools of my trade. Interestingly enough, success in non-fiction has a lot to do with your personal attitude. For that reason, I recommend assuming a certain attitude towards books and language. Allow me to take a bit of a detour to illustrate this point. Can you imagine that attitudes alone can prevent people from making money? I mean pure ideas about themselves, about their "environments," and about others. It's a remarkable discovery that specific attitudes can get between you and the solid financial footing you want to achieve. If you start out cultivating the opinion that money is something negative and repulsive, you can rest assured that you will die penniless. Knowing that you are partially the product of your own views can work wonders. What does this have to do with the topic at hand? Well, if you want to become a successful author, first you have to check your own attitudes, views and mindset. Through my own experience, I've learned that the importance of this can't be overestimated. Let's plunge right in and take a look at this controversial material.
1.
Intention as a Secret Weapon
Fabulous! You want to write a book! You want to sculpt it so elegantly that it can't help but become a best seller! Is that what you really want? Really? Do you know what is, without question, the most important thing for a professional writer? You have to have the true and honest intention of transforming that book into a best seller! A writer who doesn't have that intention doesn't
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deserve the title of author. Interestingly enough, this been promulgated. So once more - the right intention To understand the "intention" factor properly, you there are thousands of false intentions concerning being an author might have the intention of
fact has rarely, if ever, has to be present. have to understand that an author. For instance,
(1 ) having a nice, comfortable job with money pouring into her bank account every month on a regular basis. (2)pursuing her favorite hobby, "since I always have loved books." (3)giving herself an intellectual touch by occupying herself with "literature." (4) ... You can complete this list yourself1 By the way, the fact that these intentions have been enumerated on this page doesn't mean that you shouldn't become filthy rich, be intellectual or read books. It only means that you should first have the intention of producing a best seller. You see, if the book doesn't sell well, the publisher loses money. People who produce low-quality books are systematically cutting off the branch they are sitting on. Do you know how many publishing houses are established each year and how many of them go bankrupt? No? The start-ups are legion. But I have been told that over 80 percent of them are forced to declare bankruptcy in this highly competitive market. Authors (and editors) are also responsible for this!
They suppress sales by
•
producing books that aren't tailored for the market and don't sell for lack of a target audience. Or by • sloppy proofreading and • formulation of a boring and unwieldy table of contents
There might be a thousand other reasons. All the weak points can be boiled down to one thing, however. There was no intention of producing a best seller. It's true that many points have to be "worked out" in order to produce a best seller.
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(1) The author has to have delivered a high quality book. (2)The editor has to have done outstanding work. (3) The cover has to be right, as do (4) The title and (if included) the subtitle( s). (5)Advertising is a field unto itself. (6)The salespersons must show commitment. (7)The public relations work must be professionally done. Furthermore, the correct publishing house has to be selected, etc, etc, etc ... But keep in mind that nothing creates its own momentum like a book. There are examples of books which were subjects of untold newspaper articles and which had been drowned in millions of dollars in advertising money and flopped. On the other hand, there are myriad examples of books published by companies with sparse advertising budgets which were barely promoted at all, but which received such good press and word-of-mouth that the publisher couldn't keep up with the orders. Good books possess their own momentum. When they don't sell well, authors and editors should never seek refuge in excuses such as: • The publisher's PR work was lousy. • The publisher didn't hold up his/her end. • Sales/distribution/advertising were worthless,
etc.
In fact, both the author and the editor are responsible for a book's success. If a book is a waste of ink, even the most brilliant PR manager won't be able to transform it into a hit. On the other hand, an advertising professional can whip up such a frenzy around a book that it jumps up to best-seller status. But that is only if the book can stand on its own merits. The intention of the author is of paramount importance. His or her intention has to be to produce a best seller. This means, in concrete terms, that you should examine your own intentions as an author. Do any and every conceivable thing necessary to turn your baby into a top-notch book. After all, the publisher's success is your success. Only allow potential best sellers, your very best works, to leave your shop. Your books must be right in every department. For example: • •
The blurb on the back of the book, a.k.a. The table of contents.
the "fourth cover page."
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• •
The diagrams/illustrations. The cover, the title, the subtitle(s) and maybe the teaser on the front cover. If you claim that this isn't part of your job description as the author, you might be right as far as the publisher is concerned. But I'm talking about an attitude here - okay? You could probably write 1,000 books about the job of being an author. The mere question "How do you create excellent titles?" is fascinating in and of itself. And the answer is quite simple - study excellent titles of other books. Which titles seem to draw you in? How are they written? Look at it all from the point of view of producing quality books. Collect good titles. The world is chock full of books and best sellers, but no one seems to be taking a good look at them. You see that you could be tempted to drown in thousands of details. But the salient point continues to be that you have to have the intention of producing a best seller.
2.
My Own Individual Credo
Profound consequences follow in the wake of the attitude that accompanies the intention to write a best seller. As the author, you will no longer care if you work two years or two weeks on a book. It's no longer an issue whether you receive $8,000 or $80,000 for a manuscript. In saying this, I'm not trying to prop up cutthroat publishers. I merely wish to emphasize how essential enthusiasm is to successful authors. Their concept of quality is so high that all other questions are relegated to the back burner. They give their all! Let me tell you a story about Kirk Douglas that is related to this topic. In September 1958, Kirk Douglas threw himself headfirst into the huge adventure film, "The Vikings." This project carried an enormous financial liability for him, as he was a producer as well as the leading actor. When the movie was completed, he sat down to watch it and was unbearably disappointed in the results. At length, he pulled himself together and announced, "I can't fool my audience - we have to re-film everything!"!' He produced the entire movie again, risking his fortune, taking out a mortgage on his house, investing his own paycheck and enlisting the help of his family. He scraped together another two million dollars and produced the wildest, most gruesome and, at the same time, most beautiful adventure movie 11
Cf. Jacques Seguela. Hollywood Waseht Weiser. Landsberg. 1982. p. 117.
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imaginable. It was a resounding success. The movie packed in the viewers in droves and poured enough money into Kirk Douglas' pockets to cover his original investment several times over Do you understand what I'm trying to express here? The man was only interested in quality. He didn't give a damn about the money, even though he ended up earning several million dollars on the project. But he was focused only on his audience. He was obsessed with the idea of producing an incomparably good movie, full of emotions that caused people to laugh hysterically and weep with joy. He concentrated exclusively on the result. Now it's time to return to and investigate the question I posed at the beginning of this book - "what is quality?" I've already given a partial answer by listing my suspense techniques. They define what I consider to be quality. You see, quality might not be clearly defined, but there are different definitions of quality and it's up to you to hammer out your own definition of quality. I know that it's just plain bizarre, but there truly is no codified material on the writing "job." But don't let yourself be led astray by that. You have to insist on setting your own standards and reaching your own level. It goes without saying that I can't set this standard for all authors in all eras. Too many have foundered in this morass and I for one don't want to join the ranks of those who have fallen off this tightrope. I can only convey to you what I consider to be quality. Let's turn our attention now to another salient point. Why does a reader read a book? If it's a mystery, he wants to tremble with suspense. As an author, you should want to hook and bind your reader to your book. He shouldn't want to put the book down. The next important point is that suspense is essential in a non-fiction book as well. That's why I believe that information should be carefully prepared, delectably packaged and pleasantly offered to the reader. This will ensure that you interest the reader. And if you manage to do that, success is yours. Many experts could not tell you what to aim for in writing a non-fiction work. It's quite simple, in fact. The reader has to be fascinated by the book. You see, all the drivel out there on the intellectual qualities of a book is misleading - intellect vs. emotion, spirit vs. mind. These aren't necessarily opposites. Of course you have to hook the reader. Build him up, make him feel better about himself. And then he'll recommend the book to his friends. There's nothing wrong with researching meticulously, giving good advice and handing out invaluable tips. But you have to draw in your reader, damn it! A reader who feels bad after reading a book is certainly
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one who won't recommend it to his friends. There's a reason why so many non-fiction best sellers are so full of optimism. In terms of constructing a book, this means that, for every four positive case studies you cite, mention only one negative one, and then only to demonstrate a positive point. Do you understand what I mean? Once more - the result, the aim of a book is to make people feel better after they read it. The best way of doing this is to build the reader up, to hook him. The emotional side of things enjoys far too little attention in the field of nonfiction. Naturally, the information has to have a solid basis in thorough research so that the reader can learn it. The figures and the facts have to be right. But presenting these facts effectively is the issue. Is there enough humor and enthusiasm in the book? Does it make you laugh? Grin to yourself in amusement? Or admire a businessman's intelligence? Yes? Fantastic! You've built up the reader. She feels better, My own personal guideline is that the reader ought to be "excited" at least once per page. In doing this, I keep her glued to the page, keep her reading on. I cultivate a complete customer service attitude. As the author, I am my readers' servant. I want to build up the reader, make her squeal with delight! She ought to be enthralled. She should see new perspectives that she had only dreamed of previously. I have to tear her from the fetters of the banal and the mundane. It has never been said this clearly before. Even a good non-fiction book has to be gripping! Writing a good non-fiction book requires just as much commitment and energy as writing a mystery or a science fiction novel. In my role as the author, I constantly try to covey something positive to the reader. Thus, I pursue the goal of any and every good artist. I want the reader to feel better, to be better. In this aspect I feel more akin to a rock singer who whips his audience into a frenzy than I do to a boring, spaced-out professor whose masturbatory, introverted scholasticism keeps him from seeing his audience through his coke-bottle horn-rimmed glasses. I write for the audience, not for myself. It is of no import how wretched I might be feeling or whether the best wife in the world just left me. The reader doesn't give a damn about it. I write for the reader and only the reader. While she holds my book in her hands I offer her a piece of sunshine, success and entertainment - the sweet things in life. She rewards me for doing so and buys my books. Sometimes she will use
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the tips and tricks I reveal to her, sometimes not. One thing has to be made clear, though, I can't turn her life around with one book. But I can damn well make sure that she feels better for a few hours or a few days. Bland, listlessly prepared facts are guaranteed to send your reader off to dreamland. Tips he can get anywhere and that are not news to him bore him to tears. It's said that some readers have even died from boredom in the midst of reading a real snoozer. The art consists of spicing up topics that are bland by nature. But the great thing is that there are no boring topics. I can name at least ten of my books with seeming yawners for titles that became best sellers. Example: How To Start Your Own Real-Estate Business . .That title is enough to make you feel like taking a long nap. At first glance, you tend to assume that this book was written for a tiny target group. But the book was penned to be as exciting as a mystery. It was spiced with real life stories. I described what happens when you purchase real estate next door to a brothel. I pumped the pages full of life, juice and power. And before I knew it, I had written a book that, according to the managing editor, beat all the sales records that had ever been set in that publishing house. And it continues to sell well to this very day. I could list a thousand and one more examples to try to convince you. But believe me, please, I beg you, "if these delights thy mind may move," as a great English poet once said - add some spice to your non-fiction. This involves rising above the masses and sifting out the apathetic blah-blah-blah that rains down on your ears every day. It involves hunting down the unusual. Use entertainment and humor. As the author, it's your responsibility to prop up, even to supplement and underscore all opportunities to travel down this path. You have to weave funny, vibrant examples into your book and banish destructiveness, negativity and apathy from your mind. This is a success formula that can rake in millions.
3. The Non-Fiction Book, At Your Service Let's talk about another attitude that is of extreme importance if you want to write non-fiction sellers. It's news to no one that companies that provide real service blossom and flourish. Although this may be old news, the service success formula still works. A company which sees itself as a service enterprise and which honestly and truly does everything for its customers will barely be
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able to save itself from the onslaught of new customers. It's just that simple. This truism can also be applied to the publishing industry. It's an excellent idea to do everything conceivable to offer a true service to your readers. They'll repay you by recommending your work to people they know. So what do I consider "service" to be in non-fiction? Let's get down to the nitty-gritty: (l)First and foremost, I try to write clearly. That doesn't mean that I stoop down to the lowest common intellectual denominator; on the contrary, a certain standard should always be maintained. But standards don't mean that your readers should lose their way among a labyrinth of ten-dollar Latin and Greek words. For example, I prefer to use a vibrant word over an unappetizing scholarly one. Juicy, vivid words often have a high emotional resonance. An idiom that expresses something visually is more valuable than an arcane, professorial paraphrase. What is more, standards are nor established by huge dung heaps of obscure words. (2)Service also means that I summarize the important points at the end of each section, if the subject matter is complex. This gives the reader the opportunity to review my material at a glance. Here are two examples to illustrate this technique. Example No.1: Ha. A. Mehler, Ernst Haible. MONEY, More Wealth, Lower Taxes. This is one of my best sellers. The first section is dedicated to the topic "Gold - Up Close & Personal. After 30 pages, the reader will be a little overwhelmed with all the information. Knowing this, I provide all the facts "At a Glance" in an easy-to-understand format. Read for yourself: At a Glance Gold Up Close & Personal: Bullion Coins Medals Advantages of gold bullion: Best investment value in crises Stable investment Internationally valid, accepted everywhere
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Can never be devalued (price can vary) Gold is discreet and sheltered from the reach of the authorities Highest value in the smallest space (after diamonds) Gold has a small premium, i.e. the discrepancy between purchase and sale prices is smaller than for most other investments. Weights: 5g, 109, 20g, 3Ig, 50g, lOOg, 250g, 500g, lOOOg, 12.5 kg. The most common sizes for investors: 109 to IOOOg. New bullion has the weight marked on it. A certification verifies the weight of older bullion. Using carats to calculate:
24 18 14 8
carats carats carats carats
= =
1000/1000 75011000 585/1000 33311000
(pure gold) gold gold gold
The first questions before buying coins: Who issued the coin? Is the quality guaranteed? Is it are-issue? Is it a restrike? What is its condition (for older coins)? For our purposes, we distinguish between: (I ) Numismatic coins (collector coins, struck before 1804. Criteria: rarity - age - condition - beauty) (2) Semi-numismatic coins (collector coins, struck between 1804 and 1850, easier sold than numismatic coins, since more plentiful) (3) Regular coins (certain types of silver coins that act as currency) (4) Bullion coins (Maple Leaf/Krugerrand) (5) Other gold coins Bullion coins include - Maple Leaf (struck in Canada) Krugerrand (South Africa)
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The purchase price is equal to the metal value. The agio (premium) for striking costs is relatively low. At present, it stands at 5% to 6% for the Maple Leaf, 3% for the Krugerrand. Until recently, the ratio of Krugerrand to Maple Leaf was 4: 1: Maple has caught up, putting the current ratio at 1: 1. The most important gold coins (after the Maple Leaf and Krugerrand): 20 Marks (German Empire) H 20 fr Vreneli (Switzerland) 20 fr Napoleon (France) $20 Double Eagle (US) 100 Austrian Coronas A distinction is made between former circulating coins and officially issued restrikes based on these coins. Restrikes are issued with old dies and occasionally with new ones. They are traded at the same price as the original coins. Examples of official restrikes: France: 20 Franc coin Great Britain: Sovereign Mexico: Peso Austria: Corona, Ducat, Florin Spain: Pesetas Switzerland: Vreneli Turkey: Piaster Condition of numismatic Proof Uncirculated Extremely fine
coins:
Let's review the facts. The chapter on gold deals with a relatively complex subject. The reader gets pumped full of information. The subject matter was compact and dense. Despite the fact that I had made an effort to keep my tone
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convivial and entertaining throughout the text, I was aware that the reader would have some problems digesting everything. So I put myself in the reader's shoes. I took up his perspective. That's the secret. I then followed up by serving him the truly important information in tasty, easy-to-swallow info-bytes at the end of the chapter. That's service! Example No.2: This slim little volume is entitled The Correct andSuccessful Job Application. I knew the reader would be groaning after about 15 pages of nothing but text had been tamped into her brain. So I offered her a brief little summary. Read for yourself.
At a glance: 1. Job applications could also be called "packages." prepare them carefully.
It's a good idea to
2. Applications consist of: (a) Letter of introduction (b) Resume (in the form of a table or an essay) (c) Copies of certificates (d) Certificates for summer jobs, internships, classes (e) Writing sample - if requested 3. Letter of introduction: Don't rely on obsolete customs. Avoid stock phrases and awkward phrasing. Write fluently and naturally. Try to draw the reader's attention to the positive points in your application. 4. Resume: It has to contain the applicant's personal information in the form of a table or an essay. It can and should underscore the applicant's special knowledge and skills. 5. Certificates: quality.
Never send originals, but make sure the copies are high-
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6. Certificates for internships, summer jobs: Including these papers is important and helpful, particularly for first-time job applicants. 7. Package your application so that it is attractive and easy to read. Put it in an envelope with a typewritten address and place enough postage on it. Send it off in time. This book is geared towards a young clientele. In the text, I made an effort to use youthful, simple phrases. I also summarized all the complex information at the end of the chapter and recommended to the publisher that "At a glance" be printed on a gray background to set it off from the remainder of the text. (3)1 usually try to include drawings and/or caricatures. They loosen the text up. It's hard to understand why publishers don't avail themselves of this prop more often. After all, no publication records sales figures as large as comic books. And nothing teaches you more easily than pictures. Again, my idea of offering customer service is what's behind this decision. Here are two charming examples. First a caricature from my book The Correct and Successful Job Application. 12
You be the judge. of a new job?
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Is that not a hilarious caricature of an applicant in search
The Correct and Successful Job Application.
Munich: Heyne Verlag, 1988.
p.
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Example No.3: Caricature in the chapter "Securities" from the book MONEY, More Wealth, Lower Taxes. 13
Stock exchange
index
This caricature by Erik Liebermann illustrates the profitability of stock. Can you offer your readers any better service than this? At times, I even go so far as to recommend what the caricatures should portray. In other words, I provide the visual ideas and don't give a damn if this is "my" job or not! Sometimes I even pay caricaturists out of my own pocket, even though my contract doesn't require me to do so. Get it? I want to offer a best seller and top-quality service! My book Money sold 20,000 copies in the first month. Do I need to add anything to that kind of number? (4)Some business publishers go so far as to provide the telephone numbers and addresses of contact people at the point in the text where tips and advice come into play. This saves the reader time and money and she rewards you for this accordingly. Some publishers keep the phone numbers updated to provide true service. Why has no one come up. with the bright idea of examining all the various publishing strategies and ideas from the customer service standpoint? Or hire someone to come up with new ideas for improving customer service in books?
I)
p.
Mehler, Ha. A. Haible, Ernst. 368.
MONEY. More Wealth. Lower Taxes.
41h
ed.
Munich: Heyne Verlag, 1990.
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(5)Case studies and success stories can be used to demonstrate a principle. This type of example, integrated into the text, combines several benefits in one package: - It breathes life and applicability into a book. - A success story generally raises your reader's spirits. - Its entertainment value is generally considerable. (3)1 have no doubt that there are thousands of additional examples of how to put the concept of customer service into practice. But I think you understood my attitude. If the reader is treated well, he will reward me for it. And I know that I'll get to see him again and that I'll be a welcome guest in his house. He will refer his friends to me.
4. How Many English Languages Are There, Anyway? Let's turn our attention to a highly explosive subject - language. You see, some of our contemporaries preach that you shouldn't use the words "fart," "piss" or "burp". They tell you that words such as "shit", "dumb-ass" and "asshole" are taboo. They blather on about how indecent it is to use certain obscene words if you want to maintain a certain standard. But let's take a closer look at this whole issue. These demands ban language. They imply that a certain language must not be spoken or written. They oppress language. The truth of the matter is that if you listen to people talking, you'll discover that they actually talk that way. And you'll see that the language is incredibly communicative. A William Shakespeare or a Geoffrey Chaucer would never have had such an impact had they not also spoken obscene English. Gutter English. Toilet English. These languages are just as important as "refined" English. Or Snooty English, if you will. The point is that there are just as many English languages as there are groups. But by not allowing certain things to be expressed you're really preventing others from communicating with certain groups. As an author, however, you have to speak all languages and be able to speak with every group. Admittedly, this doesn't have to become a pathological compulsion. You don't have to habitually wallow in filth like a pig. But there are situations in which these languages are appropriate. In which they're effective and productive. So never succumb to the idea that you must use just one language. Don't agree to sound "educated" or "well-bred. "
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Don't force yourself to show off your "good upbringing" and with it your membership in a particular class. In the same vein, you don't have to use gutter English obsessively. Instead, the name of the language game should be absolute liberty. Of course, that doesn't mean that you ought to shock your audience when speaking before a club of elderly ladies by using expressions of a coital or fecal nature. The high art consists of tailoring your language to suit your audience, i.e. being able to speak any and every language. The oldest trick in the book among American music superstars consists of learning one, two or three words in German before singing in Germany and then saying them as best they know how on stage. As you can imagine, the audience cheers them on enthusiastically. The trick works for the simple reason that the superstars are speaking the audience's language. So accommodate your language to match your audience's language. Needless to say, if you have a large audience, gutter language might not go over particularly well. But sometimes you'll be writing a play in which a villain plays a role. And, in order to characterize him adequately, you have to scrape some words from the bottom of the linguistic barrel. Let's look at this whole area. There are some who claim that a Texas drawl and Midwest twang are horrendous. And you should never, ever use them. People of this caliber are terrified of not making "a good impression." Any rule that holds you to speaking only "pure English" is absolute hooey. There are famous plays written in dialects. Poems and books have become best sellers for the very reason that they were written in a dialect. Okay? Even nonfiction books might be livelier if some examples are written in dialect. Let's continue going over what some "authorities" have mandated. For example, the so-called rules sound like this: "You "You "You "You "You "You
must not include French words in an English text. .. " must ensure that you write in impeccable English ... " should not write in the style of the 18th century ... " must ... " must not. .. " should ... "
Do you follow me? Everyone of these "rules" is nothing but a tool to oppress language.
They
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limit it. They belittle it. They ban words. Turn the tables on them. Never, ever, ever allow anyone to prevent you from using certain words. Communicate however the hell you want, as much as you want, be it colloquial English or advertising English. The other bland, boring stuff has been worn down and won't float anyone's boat. Speak every language. This will enable you to make use of all the layers of potential communication. You'll also stumble over the editor hurdle. Permit me to make a few remarks at this point. I've met a host of editors in my day. I know what I'm talking about when I discuss this type of person. It was my distinct pleasure to meet some fantastic colleagues - incredibly well-read, helpful, competent and intelligent professionals who had not become authors themselves by a mere twist of fate. But I've also met pathetic cowards who nervously wonder, "What will the publisher think of this word? What will the reader think? What will the critics think?" In other words, they dramatize the dreaded "what-will-he/she-think?" syndrome. The poor slobs! They delete everything that's truly edifying and gratifying. Humor doesn't exist in their world. Their lives are bland, boring, frighteningly pathetic existences. They live in panic, convinced beyond a shadow of a doubt that they're sitting on a ticking bomb that will go off at any second. They are cowards par excellence, poltroons who would even delete a harmlessly refreshing word such as "balderdash" from a manuscript. They quake to see that the author has used a loutish word, even though people love it, even though there are a thousand and one similar instances in literature that prove .that the way to make best sellers is to write plain English. Let's cite Chaucer, who loved using word such as "fart," "piss" or "arse", and who basically created a new language, if not a new culture. He couched his poetry in terms of reality, solidified it and dared to speak the truth. There are hundreds of superb examples of the power of direct, unadulterated language. It's powerful because people really do use those words. This kind of language appeals directly to them, seizes them immediately and strikes a chord deep within them. As I mentioned earlier, you don't have to force yourself to use a language that appeals to the lowest of the low. I'm talking about a language that's spoken, that's alive, that's understood, that forms an immediate bond with the reader. You have to listen to what people are saying! There are fantastic examples that illustrate how correct this approach is.
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For instance, the Egyptians developed a so-called "classical" language around 300 B.C. Intriguingly, this classical language was frozen by its own rules. However, one day some of the scribes revolted. They were all well versed in the art of wielding their pens - or, in their case, in the art of using papyrus and reed quills. Their writing was insolent, direct, rude. It erected no artificial walls between them and their readers. So what do you think happened then? Can you guess? They rose to become the next generation of best-selling authors of course! And that's not the climax of the story. Their fame grew and they became the new gods of the writing guild. The centuries went on; however, their language, this "modern," "aggressive," i.e. popular language became the "classical" language. Get it? These guys, who weren't afraid of sharpening their reed quills and writing as impudently as possible, were eventually touted by some pedantic Egyptian dorks as sacrosanct geniuses! These literary pontiffs of the Nile ordered every writer to bow to their linguistic edicts and imitate their predecessors mindlessly. Bizarre! This guild of bores, of cowards, of the Egyptian pseudo-intelligentsia knew absolutely, positively nothing. Everyone eventually agreed that there ought to be such an animal as neo-classicism. There was coincidentally, the occasional living genius among this crop of literary paragons, but they didn't receive the recognition they deserved. In the course of these events, the original Egyptian literary "wild men" were lionized to the point of becoming lifeless statues, their own graven images in whose footsteps everyone was obliged to follow. The succeeding generations of writers had to struggle against yet another form of "classicism. " They had to struggle and fight for a fresh breath of air. They weren't allowed to communicate, to talk, to speak or to create art. The aforementioned Egyptian intellectual undertakers held themselves out as the only ones who "knew" what art was. These art pontiffs gagged the geniuses among them and put as many stumbling blocks as they could in their path. This drama took place in the 14th century B. C. Let's be a little more "scholarly" and listen to the "original version" of this tragicomedy. Let's allow one of the most renowned historians of the United States to contribute to our discussion: "As in Europe, so in Egypt the language of everyday speech diverged gradually, at last almost completely, from that in which the books of the Old Kingdom had been written. For a long time authors continued to compose in the ancient tongue; scholars acquired it in school, and students were compelled to translate the "classics" with the help of grammars and vocabularies, and with the occasional assistance of "interlinears", In the fourteenth century B. C.
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Egyptian authors rebelled against this bondage to tradition, and the likes of Dante and Chaucer dared to write in the language of the people ... " "The new literature was realistic, youthful, buoyant; it took delight in flouting the old forms and describing the new life. In time this language also became literary and formal, refined and precise, rigid and impeccable with conventions of word and phrase; once again the language of letters separated from the language of speech. . . " 14 Why am I telling you all this? My dear authors, learn from this example! Learn that the spoken word, that colloquialisms possess tremendous power. And that dead authors aren't the only ones with brilliant things to say. And learn that timid bores rarely make convincing authors. Colloquial English has the advantage that it's understood and adored. And the reader appreciates it if a wordsmith pushes the envelope, goes flat out, adds desire and power, juice and spice to life and offers some nourishment to this intellectually poor, starving world. You have to be able to make bold statements and not carefully weigh each and every word that might cross that line between what is "allowed" and what is "banned. " Even non-fiction authors would be well-advised not to play the part of an academic. This short treatise is a plea for art! It's a plea for life! Recall that, when he was still a young man, Goethe made a name for himself with two scandalous works, The Sorrows of Young Werther and Gotz of Berlichingen. The much-quoted, sacred Goethe, these days a staple of German culture, initiated a literary revolution by describing a menage-a-trois in Werther, a revolutionary act in those days and a violation of "good morals. " It's a little-known fact that our dear Goethe often scrawled smut on the walls while sitting on the toilet. And let's not forget the famous Goethe quote: "He can kiss my ass!" This is now literature! A "classic!" The word "classic" alone evokes images of an all-girls prep school, of nicely pleated skirts and spic-and-span navy blue collars. I'm very sorry, but Goethe said, "He can kiss my ass!" Goethe. The prince of poets. There are undoubtedly a hundred other examples, but let's leave it at that. Read the revolutionary writer Schiller, who rebelled against the princes. Hell, read whomever you like. And think it over a hundred times before you creep up on a vibrant, gripping expression with a red pen in your hand. The spoken language will establish truth more readily, since it isn't afraid of opening old wounds and 14
Durant, Will. The Story of Civilization. Vol. 1: Our Oriental Heritage. New York: Simon & Schuster, pp. 178-179.
1954.
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calling a spade a spade. A crook is a "crook," a "gangsta" or a "thug." You should be able to dub a whore a "whore" and an asshole an "asshole."
5. Target Groups and Style Let's assume that you have complete and utter freedom to speak any and every language. Does that mean that you should behave like a pig? Of course not! Consider, instead, that entrepreneurs think in terms of target groups. And that's the right thing to do. If they fail to think in terms of target groups, they'll go bankrupt. If an author fails to think in terms of target groups, his books won't sell. Specifically, this means that the way you address your readers, your choice of words, all these things have to accommodate the target audience. The vocabulary used by authors of children's books differs radically from that used by writers who produce books for business managers. So think in terms of target groups. There are innumerable examples of how successful this approach is. In other words, all the hype surrounding "your own style" is, to an extent, misleading. An author should be a master of five, ten, even a hundred styles of his own. He should be capable of expressing himself so that the target audience understands him perfectly. Topics or phrases that some groups might find hilarious might make other groups burst into tears. It's not only the style that has to be tailored to suit the target audience - you have to trim the content and the message to suit your readers. Otherwise you won't get through to them. As an author, your intention ought to be to communicate, to reach a host of people. Otherwise, the title "author" becomes a misnomer. So acquire a wide range of different styles. And watch your target groups like a hawk. There are differences of class in language. Regional peculiarities. Intellectual English. Encyclopedic English. Newspaper English. Broadcast English. Quirks in business English. And so on and so forth. Make the effort, as an actor does, to play various linguistic roles. It's fun! Not only that, but there is a vast number of motivational techniques. You can motivate people by means of adventurous vacations, material assets, money, approval, recognition, social status, awards, gold pins, etc. There is a whole field of study devoted to analyzing motivation. To date, however, no one has stated in clear terms that one target group will react better or worse to different motivational techniques than another group. The conclusion to be drawn from this is that the appeal of different motivational
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techniques varies from target group to target group. To illustrate this point with a concrete example, studies reveal that insurance agents can be best motivated by means of the "money factor." An author planning on writing a book for this target audience must motivate by means of money and not by means of gold pins or awards. Conspicuous by their absence are exact studies and surveys performed with a view to uncovering how a given target group responds to the various motivational techniques. Such a survey would provide us with some indications of the framework to be used in order to attain the highest sales with a particular book. Quite plainly, this means that the field of non-fiction is still in its infancy. Knowing this, bowever, it remains possible to research and determine the "correct" motivational techniques and the appropriate style before putting pen to paper. Let's sum up the important points. Although it is true that the liberty of language is essential, non-fiction authors would be well advised to follow the example set by entrepreneurs and to think in terms of target groups. This is by no means a check on an author's freedom. Just consider it the smart thing to do. These two recommendations are not contradictory. Let's leave the slippery ground of personal opinion and turn our attention to the craft of writing, an area in which a professional can hone his skills to perfection.
6. Book Titles That Are Right on the Money As a general rule, non-fiction disciplines, such as
authors have to be masters of several sub-
(l)Having an idea for a book, or rather, several ideas that have been intelligently tailored to suit a potential target group or a market or a sub-market. (2)Being experts in creating titles, including subtitles and "teasers" for the cover. (3)Being able to research, i.e. gather data and facts, is another commandment. (4)Non-fiction authors have to be competent in organizing a pool of data into a structure that is easy for the reader to follow. (5)The skill of setting up an effective table of contents should also be part of their repertoire. (6)The book itself must be professionally structured and written to meet a
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defined standard of quality.
Everyone of these six steps is a field of study in and of itself. Let's take a closer look at them. First things first, the title is what makes or breaks a book. It's a source of no end of confusion that publishers have not established separate departments that are exclusively devoted to creating titles. (This is an exaggeration, but it's an important point). Six months should be set aside to fashion the title, but only three months to write the book itself. There is a whole set of techniques to be mastered in order to come up with the ideal title.
• • •
This consists of knowing basic rhythm techniques as well as alliteration. Furthermore, you should know something about the emotional value of words.
What should you know about rhythm? I'd like to begin by reminding you that there are reams and reams of incomprehensible technical expressions to describe rhythm. But these expressions may cause confusion and obscure the fact that this whole field is actually quite comprehensible. So here's' a good tip. All you need to learn to have a good grasp of the essentials are four poetic "feet." There's a difference between stressed and unstressed syllables. For example, the word "elegant" consists of three syllables, el-e-gant, of which the first is stressed - el - and the second and the third, -e and -gant, are unstressed. Stress is often expressed by means of a short oblique accent mark ('). Weak stress, on the other hand, is expressed using a half-circle facing upwards (?). We can use these marks to write elegant: el-e-gant. But let's get back to our four "feet." These are the four types to watch out for: (l)IAMB: = unstressed, stressed. For example: be-tween. Or mis-take, with the first syllable, mis, being unstressed and the second one, take, stressed. Other examples: in-deed, a-sleep, for-sooth. Simple - isn't it? That's iamb! (2)TROCHEE: This consists of a stressed syllable followed by an unstressed
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one. Examples: dy-ing, jag-ged, Phil-lip, win-some, hang-dog, cer-tain. (3)There is also a foot called a DACTYL. A dactyl consists of one stressed and two unstressed syllables. A mnemonic prop: the word "dactyl" is derived from the Greek word for "finger. " Now take a look at one of your fingers! A finger has one long and two short "limbs. " Okay? A finger consists of one comparatively long section and two shorter ones. So far so good. Now let's replace "long" with "stressed" and "short" with "unstressed. " So here's the pattern: stressed - unstressed - unstressed. So in cow-ard-ice, cow is stressed, ard is unstressed and ice is unstressed. Other words: par-a-dise, mur-der-ous, de-vi-ous. (4)The diametric opposite of this is the ANAPEST. In this case, the first two syllables are unstressed and the last is stressed. "All things count." Now it's time to slap these individual "feet," as the experts call them, together. For example: "Toss the tiger in the tank!" Hmm, what do we have here? Listen one more time - "Toss the tiger/in the tank!" Correct! Three trochees, i. e. three consecutive sets of stressed-unstressed. And we ignore the ending (tank). Here's another example: "You blocks, you stones, you worse than useless things!" is a ... ? Wait a second! "You blocks, you stones, you worse than useless things!" Here we have five iambs, including the ending. You can devise your own examples until you feel confident. Poetic and advertising texts aren't the only ones to use rhythms. Generally, iambs and trochees are placed one after the other to form complex rhythms. Trochees and iambs - a continual train of stressed and unstressed syllables - can be created with relative ease. It's also a good idea to use rhythms when constructing your tables of contents. It makes them catchier. How does it make them catchier? Quite simply because it provides a regularity, a repetition (stressed alternating with unstressed). Rhythm and repetition aid you in remembering the text, be it a pop song, a Shakespearean sonnet, or a non-fiction book. The funny thing is that you can describe the study of rhythm in incredibly complex terms. There's a multitude of elegant-sounding scholarly terms in various languages to express the fact that you can put three, four or five iambs together. You could spend your first two years at college just studying rhythms, even though the subject matter itself is simple. For us hands-on writers, the salient point is that any time a peak and a trough (for example, stressed-unstressed) alternate, this difference
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produces a rhythm, a regularity. Study good book titles from this standpoint. Just take any best seller-list, whether it lists non-fiction or fiction, and give it a thorough going-over. You'll discover a host of rhythms. Here's an example: A Hun/dred Years/of Sol/itude. Make good use of rhythms - in other words, regularly alternate stressed and unstressed syllables. Similarly, alliteration is a fundamental tool of the writing trade. But first of all, what does this fine-sounding word mean? Alliteration means that there is the same initial sound in stressed syllables. For example: Toss the tiger in the tank. "Toss," "tiger" and "tank" all begin with "t." "Toss," "tiger" and "tank" are all stressed syllables. In other words - the principle of repetition is made use of here as well. That which is repeated is remembered. Another example: Whether the weather is windy ... Students at acting schools often practice these kinds of sentences in order to hone their pronunciation. Authors use them to engrave the words into the reader's memory. Why is "Peter Piper picked a peck of pickled peppers" so brilliant? Well, "p" is repeated eight times, "k" three times and "e" four times. These are all repetitions. That which is repeated is remembered. Let's examine some best seller titles: "Test Training (two "t's"), Fortunes of Fear," (two "f's"). Old best sellers and long-sellers: "Gone with the Wind" (two "w's"). Dianetics, The Modern Science of Mental Health (two "m's"). You see, it would be naive to assume that all this is just coincidence, that the authors hadn't carefully crafted these titles down to the last minutiae. Of course, this doesn't mean that every author must use these rules when formulating a title. There are criteria that should rank higher than formal characteristics, such as content. However, if it fits, if it's useful, if it's feasible, this tool from the writer's bag of tricks can really work some magic. The last thing we mentioned was the emotional value of words. By this I mean the current level of appeal of words. Some words change their emotional appeal as time passes and/or become obsolete, while other words that had been firmly planted in colloquial English sometimes become elevated in status. For example, the word "professional" has begun to enjoy a higher level of appeal. On the other hand, some terms that enjoyed an extremely high status have acquired a negative aftertaste. Unfortunately, there are no institutes that conduct surveys to determine the emotional status of words, even though their emotional status can't be overestimated.
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Non-fiction is an area that lends itself to using subtitles. The Next Level might consist of selecting an enthusiastic, exciting title that trips lightly off the tongue and pairing it with a conservative subtitle that embodies the content of the book or tickles the fancies of potential readers. The title page is also ideal for additional tempting, promising phrases (in addition to the title and the subtitle) on, say, the left edge of the book. Never forget, a book title is nothing more than a promise. An appetizer. A foretaste of a drug called suspense, customer service, know-how and entertainment. The title squeezes the table of contents into a fistful of words and must be just so. If this arrow falls short of the mark, you've lost the battle. A particularly interesting phenomenon in the US is the jump in the number of "how-to" books, for example: "How to Live a Better Life. " In this title, the nature of promises is crystal clear. Another prominent trend is the tendency to use more colloquial-sounding titles. The work graphic artists do can often push a book over the top, making it essential that they be contracted with plenty of time to spare. Since this part of making best sellers is beyond the scope of this book, we won't analyze book covers from a graphical perspective. That's an art in itself. It would certainly be a rewarding project to write a textbook illustrating case studies of covers and their effect on books. You can't imagine the care with which true professionals select a title that's right on the money. Some real blood, sweat and tears go into them. Would you mind if we analyzed one of my titles, just for fun? Several years ago, I wrote a book on motivational techniques. 15 The final title and subtitle were: HOW PROFESSIONALS MOTIVATE THE MIGHT AND MAGIC OF TRIED-AND- TESTED TECHNIQUES
Our analysis reveals that I used the following techniques: I used the little word "how" because I had noticed that "how-to" books were growing in popularity on the book market. American authors started out in the pole position in this field and appear to have won the race. The word "professional" enjoys a high level of appeal, possibly as a resul of some popular movies.
•
•
15
MOTIVATIONAL
Mehler, Ha. A. How Professionals
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Motivate.
3rd ed.
Landsberg: Verlag Modeme industrie, 1990.
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•
The repetition of the letter "0" in the title of "How Professionals Motivate" makes it easier to remember. Furthermore, there is a rhythm present in the title. • You can analyze the subtitle quickly: Might and Magic of Tried-and-True Motivational Techniques. There are three "m's" and eight "t's" (repetition). • In addition, the words might and magic provide an aura of mystery, or at least a certain attraction. • The little phrase "tried-and-tested" gives the title a respectable air and emphasizes the book's hands-on approach. You see the kind of practical considerations that go into the title! By the way, the book became a seller. In order to give the truth its due, however, a (good) title is not the only thing responsible for the success or failure of a book. If the book does not keep the promise made by the title, you've lost. On the other hand, the right title does mean that the book has a chance of becoming a best seller.
7. The Art of Research A truly exhaustive treatise on research would take up an entire .research techniques of a non-fiction author differ greatly from journalist, who has to have, say, special interviewing techniques cajole information out of an interviewee. Any comprehensive book would also have to consider the latest developments in databases. categories have been established in this area:
book. The those of a in order to on research Four basic
(l)numerical databases (only contain numerical values) (2)real-time databases (contain stock prices or the latest news, for example) (3)text-oriented factbases (the information and references are very terse and sometimes include numbers) (4) Full-text databases (contain the entire text of, say, newspapers and magazines) 16 Of course, databases are only one of many possibilities of gathering facts. It would be necessary to list the entire array of press offices, be it press offices 16
Cf. Wessenback,
Friedrich; Mehler, Ha. A. Barter. Landsberg: Verlag Moderne Industrie,
1987. p. 174.
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in cities, in the federal government or in public and private companies. Furthermore, a researcher's basic field of operations run the gamut from the Internet to libraries and newspaper and magazine archives. Entire companies focus on gathering specialized information. There are even people working as information brokers, gathering facts by means of the most diverse methods. So you see that I don't want to convey the impression that I'm planning on dealing with this entire field on a page or two. What I can do, though, is to tell you my success formula, how I go about gathering information: (l)If I really want to get myself up to par on a topic, I don't start by consulting books - I talk to an expert, preferably the expert in the field in question. If I can manage to interview the best specialist, I've already won the battle. Usually, she serves me all the material I need on a silver platter, all of it nicely packaged. In other words, I've just saved myself 95 percent of the work to be done researching the topic. This approach has the added advantage that I'm always up-to-date on technical goings-on. (2) Generally, my research partner and I lay down an exact schedule at one of our first meetings. This way, my partner knows when she needs to have what information available for me. This implies that there's at least a sketched-out table of contents to work with. I work with cassettes unless she doesn't like using recordings for some reason. In research, communication techniques are essential. That means that you have to keep your contact in a good mood so that she continues spitting out the information you need. It's an amazing fact that people who are in good spirits are just bursting with information. The art and duty of researching is to have at the ready a repertoire of techniques to "prime" a person. You have to be unobtrusive about steering your partner toward the truly explosive information, toward the information that you know or imagine would kindle a burning interest in the hearts of your readers. My standard repertoire includes these questions: - Tell me a genuinely fascinating story. Do you have any exciting success stories? - Can you tell me any humorous anecdotes? - What was it about that that affected you emotionally? - What was the most exciting or an exciting experience involving ... (research topic)?
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What do people only dare to whisper about ... in back rooms? Are there also hazardous situations in reference to ... ? When did you really start to sweat about. .. ? I also scout around for unusual anecdotes and valuable know-how that might have a bearing on my suspense techniques.
(3)1 dig deeper when I don't completely understand a word or a train of thought. How do you plan to write about so-and-so if you don't even know what it is? In addition, you have to ask your contact as many questions as she can answer. Squeeze her like a lemon. If your partner mentions that she has some more informative material, you have to insist that she write a short note to herself reminding her to bring it along to the next meeting. Perhaps she mentions ten or more brochures that she is considering bringing along. She needs a mental nudge to remember them. Likewise, other potential research contacts might be beneficial. It's a matter of course that I also provide service and establish trust when researching. I always remain loyal to my contacts, since I want to be able to come back one day and pose new questions.
8. How To Organize a Pool of Data Let's imagine that you've just dug up some excellent, first-class material. Mountains of files, magazines and little notes are piled on your desk, and you have another 89 ideas running through your head on what else to squeeze into the book you're preparing to write. What do you do next? What is the best method for organizing a non-fiction book? About 70 percent of the time, I rely on chronology as a method of organization. For example, when preparing to write How Do I Set Up My Own Naturopathic Practicer?" I put myself in the reader's position and sought to formulate a chronological plan of attack. I fashioned the table of contents to look like this: Chapter 1: Introduction ... Chapter 2: Job specifications and requirements for aspiring naturopathic practitioners (Am I cut out to be a naturopathic practitioner?) 17 Mehler, Ha. A.; Keppler, Hermann. How Do I Set Up My Own Naturopathic Practice? Bad Godesberg: Rentrop, 1988.
2"" ed. Bonn-
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Chapter Chapter Chapter Chapter
3: 4: 5: 6:
Training (Where are the best naturopathic schools?) What do I have to learn? (diagnosis .. ./therapy ?) The licensing exam (what do I have to know ) Starting my own practice (Where is the best place to open my practice?) Chapter 7: How do I get patients? Okay? As you can see, I put myself in the reader's position and analyzed his problem chronologically - and set up a logical table of contents. Another organizational method might consist of using place. If I were to write an essay on our solar system, I would probably begin by writing about the sun, then Mercury, Venus, Earth and Mars - all the way to Neptune and Pluto. Get it? Place can also form the basis of a system of organization. But don't forget that about 70 percent of the time chronology virtually begs to be used as the method of organization. Here's an interesting tidbit from my own personal experience that might help you as an author or aspiring author. When writing non-fiction books, 50 percent of the work consists of composing a structure that is logical and lucid, by which I mean not only the table of contents but also the logical structure within each chapter. The reader must always be able to understand why one statement is followed by the next. If your writing conveys a chaotic, haphazard impression, it will seem substandard. I could tell you no end of fascinating stories about how much anguish organizing material causes aspiring writers. Sometimes it's the sheer quantity of the material that delivers the killing blow. By simply knowing, however, that organization is 50 percent of the work, you're ahead of the game. So it's important that you start by determining the method you wish to use to organize your material. As we mentioned earlier, you can use chronology as a basis, but that's not an absolute must. By the way, this book, the one you're holding in your hands at this very moment, was also written, in part, chronologically. I put myself in the shoes of a reader who wants to write a non-fiction book and continued systematically. In doing so, I arrived at the sequence Title, Research, Organization, Table of Contents, etc. I jotted down a short checklist of all the steps to initial organization. are the individual steps:
Here
(1 )Place all the material you are planning on using on your desk. Also, take every thought coursing through your brain and jot them down on a piece of
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paper. Now you have every scrap of information out and at the ready. (2)Now cook up a method of organization that the reader can follow and write a temporary table of contents. (3)Experience has shown that you will occasionally have to turn your method of organization on its head while actually writing the book. The important thing, however, is that you first decide on a system to organize the material. (4) Take your mountains of material, files, books, magazines, interviews, etc, and allocate them to the individual chapters. This will cause your initially enormous mountain to shrink to, say, ten small mountains for a book with ten chapters. (5)Then turn your attention to the first chapter and organize it according to the same principle. Develop a method of organization for this chapter and set out a temporary sequence within it with, say, five main headers. (6)At this point, review the material, separate it and sort it according to these headers. I've seen authors seize up when trying to organize their material. The trick consists of carving this large task up into many smaller tasks. A ten-mile march might be grueling. Strolling 500 feet is not.
9. How to Compose an Effective Table of Contents We're moving along at an unbelievable rate! If 50 percent of the job consists of organizing the material, we've already gotten that one under our belt. You only need to design a snazzy table of contents (about 30 percent of the job) and the blurb (about 15 percent) and then write the book (about 120 percent of the job). But seriously now, how do you compose a good table of contents? Here's a good general way of setting up a table of contents: (1 )First, draw up the "naked" outline. In other words, write down all the content that should be covered in scrawny, bland words. Frequently, this is taken care of when you organize the material. (2)Now take these headers and re-formulate them more effectively. An example: For the manuscript How To Make A Fortune In Real Estate, I jotted down the following headers: 18
Kempe, Klaus; Mehler, Ha. A. How To Make A Fortune
III
Real Estate.
7'h ed.
18
ldstein: Mowe Verlag,
1995.
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• • • • •
FOR BEST-SELLING
Condominiums Tax-favored construction Purchasing models Annuities Foreclosures
These headers eventually • •
AUTHORS
models
became:
THE CONDOMINIUM: A BARGAIN WHEN ARE TAX-FAVORED CONSTRUCTION WORTHWHILE? • PURCHASING MODELS: A GOOD DEAL • ARE ANNUITIES A CRAP SHOOT? • SOLID KNOW-HOW FOR FORECLOSURES
MODELS
You see that I've draped some chic clothes around these naked words to make them really scrumptious to look at. I've more or less made these words up. Let's take a closer look at one of these headers. One chapter is called ARE ANNUITIES A CRAP SHOOT? Two considerations informed the way I phrased this title. First, I wanted to make the reader curious by asking a question. A question (that you know will be answered later) is always an incomplete cycle. But people 'generally tend to complete cycles. So the reader is forced to read the book if she wants to have the question answered. Second, the word crap shoot is a very vivid and interesting phrase. Of course, I know that a lot is associated with the expression "crap shoot" - a poker-faced man with a cigarette hanging from his lips; women in plunging necklines draped over the winner's shoulder; and the unbearable tension hanging in the air. No one knows if the next roll of the dice will bring riches or ruin. All this is what runs through a reader's mind when his eyes flit over the expression "crap shoot. " By this you see the kind of acrobatics a writer has to perform in order to draw a solitary phrase out of the dusty comers of his mind. Don't believe for a second that genius is what's needed to come up with this type of phrasing. Even the most sharp-witted professionals in the industry have occasional difficulties calling up the perfect phrase. You have to give your gray matter a
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nudge or two before everything is perfect. You would be well advised to invest extra time in composing your table of contents. It's your book's business card. It can never be professional enough. And if you want to cement a business relationship, you certainly wouldn't start by presenting your prospective client with a used business card, would you? If the title is immeasurably important, there's no doubt that the table of contents is equally so. Readers will often skim over it before deciding whether to buy a book. So it's a good idea to work in alliteration and rhythm. I always spend a great deal of time and effort crafting the chapter headings. They're the teasers that arouse the readers' curiosity. As such, they need to be very professionally written using all the tricks you can imagine. The readers should be bursting with curiosity and whispering to themselves, "That's right! That's what I've always wanted to know!" I sometimes spend a few days bent over a two or three-page long table of contents because it's more important than the entire book. Here's an example of a table of contents from one of my books.
HOW TO MAKE A FORTUNE CONTENTS
IN REAL ESTATE
Prologue I. The 1. 2. 3. 4. 5. 6. 7. II. On 1. 2. 3. 4.
7
State of the Union Secured income? .. How "Lame Paw" learned to run. When will the state go bankrupt? How (un- )certain are annuities? How to make inflation work for you The best way (not)to pay your taxes Rent is going up, up, and away
11 14 17 21 26 31 37
the Weight of your Wallet Credit and assets :.................................................... The art of making the right choice How to make money from dirt At the crossroads
43 50 52 56
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III. Into the Abyss: Your First Real Estate 1. 2. 3. 4. 5. 6. 7. 8. 9. 10. 11. 12.
Having comes from holding How to offset risks Ready to rock and roll? Communication: The key to success The art of reading between the lines in ads Assessing real estate - it's not magic How to appraise real estate Purchasing is a blessing How to finance Nothing like knowing how The right tenants Tips and tricks for a safe sale
61 65 73 77 81 84 89 93 96 101 104 107
IV. On the Path to Success 1. 2. 3. 4. 5. 6.
How much money can you earn? The condominium: A bargain The good deal: hunting for old real estate Hooray! - I've got my own house! Are annuities a crap shoot? Know-how for foreclosures
117 125 128 134 138 142
V. Real Estate Professionals 1. More with a multi-family unit 2. How to earn money "properly:" apportioned real estate 3. From sea to shining sea - doing business in the US 4. Supermarkets, castles, hotels: buying posh and selling elegant 5. How to earn $3 million in three months: real-estate development 6. How to organize sales 7. Big business: listed companies, limited partnerships, funds 8. The next level of financing
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147 159 166 172 177 182 187 198
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I have no idea whether you are interested in real estate books or not. If you are not a member of the target audience for this book, then it's my tough luck. How To Make A Fortuneln Real Estate, by the way, is one of my best sellers. I believe that I can attribute a goodly portion of the success my book has enjoyed to the manner in which it was written.
10. The Beginning is Half of the Whole Finally, finally, you can kick off. You can let your genius run wild. But how do you start, how do you kick off? Here's what I ordinarily do. The first chapter generally contains nothing more than an enthusiastic, exciting promise of what the book has to offer. It should fill the r,eader with hope that her questions will be answered and her problems solved. It's essential that you write this chapter in a constructive and positive fashion. The trick is to identify with the reader at the same time. In other words, you've got to speak her language, take up her perspective and look at the world from her point of view. Not only that, but the promises you offer up should be fulfilled in later chapters. Despite the fact that problems can be mentioned in the first chapter, it would be folly to overdo the gloom and doom. The first chapter is what hooks the readers and pulls them into your book. It isn't until the second chapter or at the end of the first chapter that real "problematical areas" should be tossed about. Regrettably, the bulk of authors can't build up suspense systematically. Can't breed any attitude of expectation. My introduction, which provides a glimpse of the book's content, has to be written to take your breath away faster than an Agatha Christie mystery novel. But it shouldn't let the reader in on all the secrets. It should only arouse hunger, whet her appetite for the book. It is my own personal ambition to formulate the first chapter to be sweeter than sugar. To be the ne plus ultra, the top banana. You have to lure the reader into your book and seize her. Of course, I operate with my suspense techniques and apply all the know-how in my power. To reiterate, the romance writer isn't the only one who needs to build up suspense and provide entertainment. Fill your non-fiction book to the brim with colorful, real-life examples. Work with stories and intersperse anecdotes throughout. Introduce inimitable types. Describe situations as a novelist would, Furthermore, it's essential to "sell" the information you are proffering to the reader. Feel free to inform her that "the .next few pages are a real treasure trove
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of. .. ," that "some tips are worth more than their weight in gold," etc. A good non-fiction writer conveys the impression that the reader is holding an exceptional book in her hands. The only catch is that your statements have to be true, of course. You can't afford to fluff your feathers and brag like a bodybuilder if your advice is questionable or lacking in substance. Another idea consists of assimilating "attention-getters." The phrase, "Listen up now!" is impolite, unless used in a humorous context or to generate enthusiasm. Here are some phrases that usually come off better: • • •
"You may be interested to hear that. .. " "Intriguingly, experts have proven beyond a shadow of a doubt that ... " "Something extraordinary happens whenever ... begins. "
These are some clever ways of reeling the reader into a book. author is thus a kind of intellectual siren whose compelling songs with hazily ecstatic imagery. The hitch is that you have to lead your the shores of paradise. Otherwise, she'll denounce you (and rightly braggart and a huckster.
A good resonate reader to so) as a
11. The Scale of Linguistic Skills A step or two further along the chronological path puts us smack dab in the middle of our non-fiction book with us scribbling away cheerfully. This is the point where we should ask ourselves, if we haven't done so already, whether you can learn the art of using language? In other words, is writing only the offspring of inborn talent? And is genius something to be genuflected to, while the remainder of the writing pack will never amount to anything? Experience has taught us that the air "up there" can get very thin and that real professionals are few and far between. On the other hand, respected scientists and researchers have discovered that even the greatest geniuses in history studied day in and day out. Studies have brought to light the fact that genius can be developed, that it's not merely the random meeting of a pair of chromosomes that determines how a person's life progresses. I am firmly convinced that you can improve and nurture authors to become better, particularly in light of my working experience with so many of them. In my experience, it's always profitable to take up the reader's point of view, to encourage positive, possible change. Keep in mind, however, that people, in general and in specific cases, move in: different linguistic circles. I once tried to develop a
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HA. A. scale reflecting the various levels of linguistic abilities people have. yourself:
MEHLER
Read for
SCALE OF LINGUISTIC SKILLS Levell:
Illiterate Can neither read nor write
Level 2: Able to read and write basic English Makes frequent spelling errors Has a very weak grasp of grammar Small vocabulary Level 3: Average vocabulary Average command of English Approximately 70% of the population on this level Level 4: Vocabulary Occasionally
uses vocabulary
from higher and lower levels
Level 5: Very large vocabulary Juggles words from many levels Frequently uses language to achieve an effect Level 6: Exceptionally large vocabulary Commands various and sundry poetic and rhetorical means of expression and learns new words on an ongoing basis Speaks the "languages" of at least 5 levels and/or different dialects His/her writing is gripping; possesses some acting talent Level 7: Full command over language Can invent words and create language Original phrasing Speaks and writes perfectly and astonishingly rapidly His/her own style and/or styles Best-selling author, high-level politician, high-level manager or similar genius
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One caveat, I have not the slightest interest whether this scale is complete or whether it needs to be tweaked here and altered there. It's solely intended to demonstrate that people function linguistically at different levels. While we're on the topic, if you wish to help an up-and-coming author to write a better book, the best place to begin is to find out where he is linguistically. So the best way to give some authors a leg up on writing is by patching up their most egregious spelling, grammar and expression errors. Then again, some authors are already functioning at such a high level that a few mental nudges suffice to propel them to the highest pedestal. As you can see, it's a thorny issue giving tips on the proper composition of the interior, the content of a book, since each author may be at a different level. One may deem it necessary to know how to cite sources. Another writer may encounter difficulties coming up with good comparisons. There's enough material here to develop an entire repertoire of techniques and methods. The huge unknown in this equation is the question of how advanced the author is. The ideal solution to this problem would be a truly outstanding writer's institute or a university for authors in which each student's level would be determined and a curriculum set up with the aim of allowing the aspiring author to make the most progress possible. This writer's academy would be the ideal answer to this question. It is my dream to one day establish something such as this at a lofty level. Training authors is an extraordinarily exciting undertaking. Authors and artists represent a wealth of inconceivable potential that is too rarely glimpsed.
12. Pitfalls and Downfalls - and How to Get Around Them Notwithstanding the fact that advice given on the style necessary for nonfiction books should be specific and individual, I would still like to draw your attention to some prominent pitfalls and downfalls. As I have worked with a substantial number of authors and have edited scores of books myself - and acted as the editor-in-chief for several works - I may lay claim to knowing some of the most popular sins among authors. These include problems of a linguistic nature and difficulties with craftsmanship in general. Let's begin with the more understandable ones that deal solely with the craftsmanship question. Editors and proofreaders continually stumble over the fact that: •
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Authors often do not quote correctly.
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Of course there's a wide range of possibilities of citing sources. In some publishing houses, writers have agreed to, say, not cite the date of publication, i. e. not to state when a book came out, but instead to list the publisher and the price. Excepting this kind of variation, here is the normal plan of attack: You cite: (l)the
author of the book, then
(2)the title of the book, then (3)the place of publication,
followed by
(4 )the name of the publisher and (5)finally the date of publication. For example: Mehler, Ha. A. How To Start Your Own Real Estate Business. Bonn-Bad Godesberg: Mowe Verlag, 1985. Pay attention to punctuation! Although you place a period after the author's name and the title of the book, a colon belongs firmly behind the place of publication and the only thing between the publisher's name and the date of publication should be a comma and a space. If the author is not listed, you write How To Start Your Own Real Estate Business. Bonn-Bad Godesberg: Mowe Verlag, 1985. (6)If it is the fourth edition, you have to include this in your citation. For example: Mehler, Ha. A. How To Start Your Own Real Estate Business. 4th ed. BonnBad Godesberg: Mowe Verlag, 1985. You have to gather the details (place of publication, year of publication, number of editions) yourself. (7)Furthermore, you have to list the page in a quotation. If you are quoting two pages or more, you write "pp. 12-13." By repeating the "p" you are indicating the plural.
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When quoting magazines, the format changes slightly. Instead of italicizing the name of the article being cited, the name of the magazine is what is italicized, while the title of the article is placed in quotes. For example: Roosevelt, Anna. "Lost Civilizations of the Lower Amazon. " Natural History Feb. 1989: 7483. Note that the page numbers are placed after a colon and need no "p. " or "pp. " to identify them as such. It's just a question of fairness to quote other authors properly. Not referring to your sources would be dishonest. Not only that, but it's also a sign of respectability and truthfulness to make clear references and cite your sources. After all, a text becomes more understandable when its statements obviously have substance. Otherwise, the reader will presume that they're mere opinions. In short, the academic method of citing works used is a welcome aid to writers, since the impact of a book or a text increases when the facts within have been backed up. If not, you're nothing more than a common thief who claims ownership of something that belongs to others. •
It's generally a good idea to avoid abstruse words.
Abstruse or obscure words are a sure means of keeping your reader from reading your book or text. But at the same time, they may be unavoidable, especially so when they are technical expressions that can only be paraphrased with difficulty or that describe a circumstance with such precision that any other word would be a hollow substitute. In this situation, it's essential to define the obscure word immediately and without hesitation, ensuring all the while that the definition doesn't contain another twenty expressions which only a handful of people know and which are, for their part, not explained either. In conclusion - abstruse words - yes, if necessary and effective, but explain (in simple terms) immediately. If you want to define the word "hole," don't write, "a hole is a unific, hermetic projection of nonbeing into hypostasis. " Write instead, "a hole is nothing with something around it." Definitions that complicate the subject at hand are worthless. Instead, definitions should be clear, understandable and simple. In general, what counts is the intention. The reader should be able to grasp the meaning of a word within one second, or at least very quickly. To put it more radically - in general, no one should write definitions if he or she does not harbor the intention of making the reader understand.
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To make the reader understand, you can use simplicity, illustrations and examples. Generally, a word has a fundamental idea or concept behind it. Once the idea has been understood, the word itself is understood. There is occasionally an "intention" behind a word as well. If you can transmit this intention to the readers, you're an ace of a teacher. I think you understand the point. Service should be the basic thought, the basic intention when it comes to writing definitions. •
Another common foible of authors is their inability to write vivid phrases. When elaborating on a concept, it's vital to be able to portray it as skillfully as possible. It might be possible to describe briefly a plan of attack for sentences:
(l)First write out a pale, normal sentence. (2)Then try to jazz up what you wrote with some ideas, colorful words or humorous examples. (3)Pore through dictionaries to sculpt your sentence more resonantly, more colorfully. Make it more interesting. Above and beyond the information contained in the sentence, it's a good idea to watch your style and usage. Let's talk facts now. When using nouns, take great care not to repeat them too often, thus tiring your readers. Synonyms are the solution. You find them in thesauri. But avoid adjectives or verbs used as nouns. Use adjectives liberally. But be careful! Don't overdo it! After a certain point, they become annoying. In general, idioms loosen a text up. Work with them! They add color to what you're writing. You can find many examples in special dictionaries. Listen to what people are saying, as Martin Luther did. This will open up unimagined opportunities. When using verbs, it's a good idea to use "vivid" verbs. Let's take a closer look at this point. Experience has taught me that juiceless, lifeless verbs are the largest chink in most aspiring authors' armor. What do the majority of candidates do wrong? Well, they use emaciated, boring, bland verbs! It's no news to anyone that you can play ping-pong with words, that you can juggle them, that you can make them do the jitterbug, that words possess momentum of their own. Solely with words you can capture
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the reader's attention - by using colorful, vivid, impressive words. Words are the musical instrument upon which the author plays his melodies. Granted, sentence structure, grammar, etc. are important. But words are at the top of the scale in terms of importance, particularly in comparison to grammar, since the latter can always be corrected. What does this mean specifically? Wherever possible, avoid such words as To be - (I) am, (you/we/they) are, (he) is To do - or To have. My own personal name for what these authors are suffering from is the "tobe-to-do-to-have-syndrome." The cheapest thesauri will provide you with alternative words. Other words to be used with caution are To go To see and To come. I will not tolerate this boredom any longer! There are truly very few exceptional cases in which I refrain from walloping, declaring war on, eliminating, exterminating, expunging, impaling and shooting these words. So please, help me string these words up on the gallows! •
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The basic intent of an author should be to prime a text to be interesting. One way of pepping up a text is to use comparisons. Before comparing a situation or a thing to another situation or thing, you should know what that something can be equated to. There are several possibilities: (l)Television programs lend themselves to comparisons. Example: To be as rich as the folks in "Dallas. " Refer to shows that are highly popular and thus easy to understand. (2)ln the same vein, allusions to current events can be of assistance. Currently relevant jokes or subjects lend themselves ideally to compansons. (3)Also, actors, athletes, politicians and celebrities who are currently "in" make ideal objects of comparison. (4)Comparisons that relate to ancient Greek or Roman culture or.to the Egyptians, Indians, Chinese, etc. are equally beneficial. Naturally, this assumes a certain level of education. Particularly popular as
HA. A. MalLER references are the Bible and Homer's Iliad and Odyssey, to cite the most prominent examples. References made to books and their content as well as references to book titles identify you as being "educated" and cause the readers to bow mentally before you. This might not be what you're aiming for, but it's essential to be able to evoke a kaleidoscope of images within a certain class of reader merely by citing one book title. (5)Comparisons from history are another option. If someone is eulogized as being as misunderstood as Galileo, that's communication. It speaks volumes. Therefore, history lends itself to similes. Someone can be as "proud as Caesar" and "as brilliant a strategist as Napoleon. " (6) There are as many variations on this theme as there are stars in the sky. Comparisons from daily life (for example, I liked that person about as much as I like my mother-in-law. That guy was as pleasant as a toothache). Communicate very well because everyone has experienced these things in real life. Comparisons that include humor techniques are, of course, the Next Level. Let's return to our error analysis: •
Another favorite mistake committed by non-fiction writers is that of not picturing an audience. Indeed, authors would generally be well advised to imagine a specific person to address. Address your reader directly, just as I'm addressing you directly and imagining that you are an actual person sitting in front of me who I'm trying to convey some lively, interesting information to.
•
One of the most common errors young authors fall victim to is to confuse tenses. In one sentence, the author scribbles happily away in the present tense before switching just as cheerily into the past tense. She jumps back and forth between present and past perfect, like a rabbit that can't decide which carrot to nibble on. This error frequently befalls the beginning author.
•
One device that is grossly neglected is the anecdote. The cute little happenstance. The little story that wriggles its way into the text and enchants the reader. Tell more stories! Anecdotal information. It's one way of winning readers over.
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• The Next Level consists of incorporating suspense techniques into your non-fiction. Many suspense techniques conceived for literature can also be used in the realm of non-fiction. Specifically, - recount unusual events/people/circumstances, - introduce heroes and protagonists, - portray the hero defeating an enemy and - heap more fuel on the flames of the passions, but only the positive ones. I could reiterate all twenty suspense techniques from Chapter IV, but let's get right to the point. Implementing these suspense techniques, these methods of capturing, maintaining and directing someone's attention to the future is dependent on the specific non-fiction you're writing at the moment and can't be generalized. By heeding these recommendations and avoiding these pitfalls, you'll be head and shoulders above the rest of the non-fiction clan. The best thing about it is that you can practice each of these individual points to perfection.
13. The Writer's Guild Let's put all the various groups of writers and pen-pushers under a microscope and examine them one by one. Let's begin with the "real" authors. Sociological studies established some time ago that the majority of our beloved writers (I include all authors of theater and radio plays, novels, short stories, mysteries, science fiction, fantasy, film scripts and non-fiction) are not particularly successful. In other words, there are no end of authors, but only a handful make it to the top and join such august names as Ken Follett, JK Rowling, Mary Higgins Clark, Michael Crichton, John Grisham and Stephen King, among others. The air thins out rather quickly at that altitude. Why? Many would-be authors get too wrapped up in their "genius" - even before they publish their first syllable. Many of these "misunderstood" geniuses haven't learned their lessons in the school of hard knocks and don't know that great authors worked in journalism, for example, before publishing their first book. I've often noticed a lack of experience and of the willingness to work truly intensively and tirelessly among aspiring writers.
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Besides this guild of "real" writers, there are three other large groups of pen-pushers: - copywriters, - journalists and - academics. Representatives from each of these four groups have what it takes to become good authors. But each group suffers from its own specific shortcomings that are partially the result of their professions. Let's take a closer look at each of them. Copywriters are talented and experienced in writing book titles and tables of contents because they are accustomed to producing writing that is short, effective and bold. I've worked with some on occasion and have even mentored a few of them. I know the area a little. Advertising copy is generally very well paid and is excellent practice for an author. I see no crime in writing good copy now and again. Some renowned figures in literary history have written advertising copy. The first slogans for the famous German sauce "Maggi" were written by the poet Frank Wedekind and if Shakespeare were alive today, he might be the head or creative director of a global advertising agency - who knows! As far as books are concerned, copywriters are not used to thinking in terms of overarching suspense curves. Their art consists of quickly and abruptly capturing the audience's attention and creating an immediate desire to purchase the product in question. In a book, however, you generally "sell" a hero or the characters or whatever bit by bit, unlike a product or services. Another danger for copywriters is posed by their tendency to obsess over details. Creativity techniques (Chapter VI) can remedy this problem. The second group in the writer's guild, and most likely the largest one, comprises our friends the journalists. As I myself was employed as a television journalist for five years, I learned the profession from the ground up. What can we say about the literary talents of this guild? There has been a great deal of severe criticism directed at journalistic hacks. Prominent minds have described them as muckrakers, as professional trouble makers who earn their living by spreading the suffering, horror, misery, the filth, malevolence, evilness and criminality of the world. It's not my intention to pass judgment on the moral qualities of the yellow press. For my purposes, I differentiate very sharply between "bad news" journalists, who shouldn't be lumped in with honestly committed, ethically motivated representatives of the journalistic species.
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Besides, I'm not interested in analyzing the world of journalism. More important to me is the technical, the actual writing aspect of journalism. Although it might be wise to learn from top-notch journalists, it's also a smart move for an author to know the weak points of the system. During my career, I've encountered many journalists who had to have a particular writing style exorcised out of them. What do journalists generally do wrong that an author should do differently or better? May I address you directly? (l)Begin by forgetting everything you've ever heard about the virtues of a critical attitude! Being critical has risen to the level of a disease. Much more important than that is the ability to understand, to be able to take up completely and totally another's perspective, to crawl up into another person and to look through his eyes and hear with his ears. The art of comprehension should be placed ten thousand times higher on the scale of values than that hollow, primitive, pseudo-intellectual "critical understanding" that often manifests itself in utter denial of any reality. Of course, there does exist .such things as constructive criticism, which ought to be dispensed very skillfully, if it's your desire to write a best seller. I myself place criticism, objections, negative or destructive comments, if they absolutely must be touched upon, at the end of a book so that they don't spoil the reader's mood. After all, I want to keep her at it, motivate her, give her sugar cubes, spoil and pamper her. A reader is a whiny, ill-tempered, badly behaved child who has to be constantly flattered, whose attention has to be held by any means possible. Or, to put it positively, the reader has a right to decent entertainment. A writer is thus a bit of a circus artist and a clown. He has to put on a good show and offer something to the reader for a few bucks. The reader demands knowledge, valuable tips, good entertainment, dapper, intelligent phrases, engaging comparisons and a little theater. So forget whatever garbage you might have heard about a "critical attitude." Provide real service. Do the polka with your words. Don't complain all the time. Don't be a know-it-all. There's a wonderful side effect to this about-face in perspective. I've actually seen journalists who, after having changed their writing style, began to write and live more happily. They stopped their never-ending hunt for the offal, the manure, the stinking filth of life. You know that it's possible to look through every mask of every person in every company and discover a vast array of fascinating, aesthetic, wonderful and refreshing qualities. For
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the love of God, why don't people emphasize the positive sides of things? The beautiful things in life? Who was it that dared to dub only nagging, destructive criticism "intellectual"? Why does it seem like the only way to say something intelligent is by spewing viciousness and evil? The truth of the matter is that you can be positive and intelligent at the same time. Therefore, try being constructive, supportive, encouraging and humorous. (2)Journalists decorating flowerpots.
generally write too objectively. They aren't accustomed to with garlands, throwing confetti around and setting out
(3)They write chapters that are much too short. Forced to write succinctly and densely by the various editors above them, they have problems filling up the 10 to 20 pages necessary for a book chapter - and that's with transitional text in place of space-gobbling headers. (4) What is truly important is the fact that journalists often don't trust their own talent. Contorted by the eternal criticisms of complainers and critics who are entrusted with "inspecting" the texts or articles and whose "improvements" often make a text even worse, a journalist's literary ego will collapse totally. In serious situations, his attitude becomes hyper-critical toward his own writing style, he immediately squelches any "flow," thinks a thought, immediately criticizes this thought and doesn't allow himself to be a genius, or, to be more specific, doesn't attribute any importance to his immediate thoughts. He denigrates himself. In his mind's eye, he sees the same know-it-all "old hands" who have always crushed any desire he had to write. Of course it's necessary to improve the form of your text. But you see, I go about it like this: Phase 1: The night before I plan to write, I make sure that everything is researched, that all the data is perfectly prepared and lying on my desk. Often, I even arrange the information I want to convey into a specific sequence. Phase 2: The following morning, generally between 10 am and 4 pm, I spew everything out of my pen, refusing to pause for hell or high water. Write, write, write. I don't correct a single syllable, not a single line, not a
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single spelling error. Doing so would cut off the flow, would cause me to obsess about details. Then every decent thought just goes straight to hell. This has the added advantage that I use a lot of colloquial expressions, which makes a text more colorful and appealing than, say, a dry, academic style of writing. After having written everything at a spine-tingling speed and having savored my genius, I see to some other things, say, make phone calls, grumble at the second-best wife in the world (the best belongs to Ephraim Kishon), look after my little son and bring in the mail. Phase 3: Late in the afternoon or in the evening, I correct the text. I work on improvements. Trudge through thesauri. Cross out. Expand. Never change the fundamental flow! During Phase 2, by the way, I am not available for anyone, neither for the second-best wife in the world, nor for my friends. I even banish the telephone from the room. You see that Phase 2, the actual creative phase, is incredibly important. Indeed, there has to be a desire to write. I actively chase away any thoughts of possible corrections to be made. I'm not about to let my own thoughts confound me! I don't want to torture myself! The eternal, continual fixer-type is a masochist. She obsesses - to the detriment of the writing flow and, therefore, of quality. And readers can sense when a writer is grinding her teeth, believe you me! So trust yourself! Relearn the joy of writing! Don't correct yourself constantly. Just write! It's the most beautiful activity in the world! Let's take a look at the last group - the "academics. " Is there such an animal as a best-selling author and an academic in one? I'm sure you've already guessed the truth. Only in the rarest cases do academics rise to become top-notch authors. A mere handful of academics, with "Ph. D." or, more impressively, "Professor" in bold print on their business cards, are actually capable of writing well and producing intelligent, readable, enjoyable books. There are some noteworthy exceptions, but these folks have managed to descend from the Olympus of academics and to venture out into the lowly spheres of the "common people. " They write what is termed "popular science" - and are not the less clever for it. On the contrary, they are much, much more intelligent because they speak their audience's language. If I want to reach a large crowd, I also have to use crude, juicy, onomatopoeic expressions and idioms. Indeed, colloquial language is so colorful, so vivid, so fantastic,
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that any scholarly language appears monotonous, pale and thin in comparison. Just listen to people talking in bars! The academic best-selling author is generally a lonely figure, because he has been instilled with various writing neuroses. Let's look at them under our microscope: (l)Warped by their education and training, academics are predestined to fail as authors. Our colleges and universities delight in cultivating the psychosis that everything has to be expressed in a complicated fashion, even the simplest information. That's a trap. Writing in an "educated" style means nothing more than being an intellectual linguistic contortionist. Never forget that these professors are often sad souls who have never really experienced life, who have never left the dusty back rooms of their libraries and have little, if any, hands-on experience. Despite the tons of theoretical knowledge they possess, by the way, they generally earn less than a quick-witted, enterprising person who purchases a Mercedes in Germany, drives it to the Middle East, to Syria or Jordan, unloads it, enjoys a nice vacation and returns home with an extra $10,000 and memories of an exotic comer of the world. My tip is this. Lose a little respect for these bookworms, these ivory-tower philosophers! They're not mean-spirited, only as boring and dry as a can of prunes. So avoid artificial complication! Your average college survivor will strive to complicate simple information, whereas a best-selling nonfiction author will try to simplify complicated information. (2)Academics pass through a system packed with theory. Being able to juggle obscure words is supposed to be proof of intelligence. In reality, it only reveals a fearful desire to be judged "intellectual" at any price. It goes without saying that anyone who constantly has to prove that he's clever most certainly is not clever. He's afraid. True knowledge doesn't have to hide behind imposing words. In fact, an excessive use of abstruse words is nothing more than an attempt to hide, a neurosis, a fear of being discovered, a bit of cowardice. Intelligence, wisdom doesn't have to hide behind words that no one understands and that no one can fathom. This impedes any form of communication and robs the writer of readers! There exists an unpublished confidential study which I would like to refer to at this point, since it focused on the actual vocabulary of the population at large. It came to the stunning conclusion that college graduates possess a range of
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vocabulary that is normally attributed to high school graduates, whereas the vocabulary used by high school graduates is generally limited to the range attributed to middle school students. This study reveals that, in spite of their apparent level of education, the majority of people move in extremely lowly linguistic circles. For practical purposes, however, this means that you, as a writer, have to use every iota of brainpower you have to write at an intelligible level - unless it's your desire to drive off your readers. That doesn't mean that your writing has to be drab and boring. What it does mean is that you shouldn't artificially force yourself to set a high standard by being complicated. (3)The same thing holds true for stilted grammar. Of course, you can derive a certain aesthetic pleasure from imitating the twists and turns found in the writing practiced by Georg Wilhelm Friedrich Hegel or Immanuel Kant. But the actual message is often thereby more obscured than revealed. More attention is paid to the form than to the content. These fellows could be styled academic poets who sometimes even believe that their own minds are as complicated as their writing. They are rarely successful. So if you're so unlucky as to have attended a university and still want to become a bestselling author, begin your career by swearing off complicated writing. (4) The obsession prevalent in the academic world to quote incessantly is, of course, another point that drives a real professional up the wall. Don't misunderstand me - there's absolutely nothing wrong with quoting properly. On the contrary, it's a question of being fair and decent, and I didn't include it in this book as an important point on its own for no reason. But this virtue is often taken to the point of intellectual suicide. It should never be used to the exclusion of developing your own thoughts. By cleverly taking cover behind recognized, renowned authorities and quoting "great poets and thinkers," some people actually believe that they're as sharp as a tack. Ironically enough, it's a relatively primitive skill, on a level with Neanderthals, who were also talented imitators. Compulsively quoting so-called authorities can destroy your own initiative, can grind your ideas to a pulp and denigrates you to the level of a parrot, regardless of whether the authority cited is a real authority or just one of those pseudo-authorities you encounter so often nowadays. You see, there is such a thing as true respect for geniuses, they should be crowned with laurels. I personally genuflect before them! Give
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credit where credit is due! But this disease of only being allowed to quote and never to conceive of new ideas means hara-kiri for the thinking person. Every ounce of vitality is snuffed out in the process. (5)Writing books requires a tremendous amount of human warmth. This quality could also be termed affinity. Affinity is an additional quality that determines whether a book has the stuff to become a best seller. However, affinity is hampered by the coolness common to academics, their distance, their pseudocritical airs. (6)The theoretical density is an additional problem that can be dealt with quite easily - by introducing powerful, real-life examples that balance out the theory. The bad news is that our entire educational system is a farce. The good news is that, as an author, you can transform all these weak points into strong points. Don't get me wrong, it's not my intention to get any academic's panties in a bunch. The issue at hand is a system that condemns potentially good authors to be unsuccessful. Incidentally, it's ignorant to lump all the members of a profession together. The truth of the matter is that there are some professors whose lectures are bursting with entertainment and even some that are bestselling authors. But they are generally college professors who have deigned to stoop to commit themselves and have written exciting books dubbed "popular science," i.e. not smothered in the dust of past millennia. Despite all my criticism, please don't think for a moment that I don't truly love wordsmiths! In fact, I like them all - no matter if they're "real" authors, journalists, copywriters or academics. I know that my words were harsh, but please believe me, they were meant to be constructive criticism and were based on my own experiences and observations. Please forgive me for my honesty!
14. Million-Dollar Formulas for Best Sellers? Let's conclude the chapter on non-fiction sellers with a provocative question - is there such a thing as a million-dollar formula for non-fiction sellers? Would you mind if I first ushered you into the inner sanctum of some publishing houses before returning to the question? In order to answer the question, we should first discuss publishers' ideas. What exactly is meant by
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idea?"
(1) Well, the publisher's idea behind, say, the publishing house "Reader's Digest" consists of only publishing the hottest products. This is an idea that can't be beat. The publisher only publishes best-selling authors, thereby allying itself with the 0.0001 percent of all geniuses who are already successful and transforms their success into its own. This is an absolutely unstoppable publisher's idea. (2) Another publisher's idea consists of only publishing guides for areas in high demand. In other words, the market is systematically analyzed and the book is produced to cater to the specific market needs. (3) Another publisher's idea consists of setting up a specialized publishing house that transmits technical and specialized know-how. An example - a publishing house for start-ups. This brand of publishing house is geared toward people who want to start their own businesses, who are in search of professional opportunities. Since the target group consists of opportunity-seekers - in other words, intellectually active people who keep their "antennae" out - this idea works, and for the very reason that this group is relatively active. (4)The publisher's idea behind the publishing house "Verlag moderne industrie" consists of tailoring books to cater to a particular target audience - in this case managers and entrepreneurs. This clientele is relatively well-defined, wellheeled and well-read. They don't just want to be up on the latest trends - they have to be. And that's why this publisher's idea works so well. Every publishing house has (written or unwritten, published or confidential) guidelines. They might also be called communication strategies and they basically ensure the company's success. This means that entire publishing houses are based on strategies and maintaining them is a question of life and death, of success and failure. If they're worth their salt, you can conquer entire markets. What do these types of success formulas for communication look like? Let's look at two examples: (1) The editors of the Brockhaus, Germany's best-known encyclopedia, abide by certain guidelines. They • Convey information impartially (neutrally), • Use the best sources,
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Carry the commandment "objective correctness" Write succinctly and clearly and Remain scrupulously up-to-date. 19
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on their banner,
(2)Reuters, the world's largest news agency, cultivates another communication strategy. Its employees • • • • •
Make full use of all opportunities presented by the latest in communications technology, Report completely impartially, i.e. incorruptibly, independently of government influence and not in support of any political party, Publish only the facts and accurate information, Report rapidly and Communicate intelligibly.
The most important commandments are impartiality and accuracy, followed by rapidity and good style. That is the sequence of importance at Reuters. 20 We've discovered a topic known as "communication strategies. " Fascinating! I hold this to be an independent field of study that sets forth how to communicate effectively. It would be worth injecting millions of dollars into research in order to allow this discipline to achieve true recognition. Indeed, billions are being spent on establishing the technical, the formal side of communications channels, such as satellite, telecommunications, databases or Internet. The content-based side, i. e. how to communicate effectively in order to produce the largest effect possible and to enjoy the highest resonance, has, intriguingly enough, yet to be the subject of much attention. In the same light, no one has apparently stumbled across the idea of developing best-seller formulas. Technically, you could pick up a best-selling non-fiction book, analyze it, subdivide the audience into ten target groups - and then write ten new books targeting precisely these groups. Take for example the best seller, The High Art of Selling. 19 Cf. Barbier, Hans D. ; Krause-Brewer, Fides, (ed.) The PerSOIl behind the Product, berg: Rentrop Verlag, 1987. pp. 252-253. 20 Cf. Barbier, Hans D. ; Krause-Brewer, Fides, (ed.) The Person behind the Product, berg: Rentrop Verlag, 1987. pp. 262-263. 21 Mehler, Ha A. How To Start YOllr OWIl Real Estate Business. 9th ed. Idstein: Miiwe work contains an extensive section on selling real estate. The book was - and still is -
Bonn-Bad GodesBonn-Bad GodesVerlag, 1995. This a best seller.
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Divvy it up into: How Professionals How Professionals How Professionals How Professionals
Sell Sell Sell Sell
Real Estate" Insurance" Cars Computers"
First the bad news. I wrote three of these books. But here's the good news, I employed the formula I just explained to you. In the same vein, you could analyze various books which contain truly essential information, but which have been written in a horribly boring, drab and dry style and are complete washouts in the area of customer service. Merely by re-writing these books and presenting the information with more enthusiasm, you could chum out one best seller after the other. It's probably also possible to sort out 100 books from a particular field, determine" What's really interesting here?" and sift out the most interesting parts of these 100 books. The real humdinger is that there is a discipline that describes how to write best sellers. There are success formulas. There's definite lack of comprehensive studies on this topic, although I truly believe that they would be worth any effort. The hottest investigation that might be carried out would consist of digging up effective communication strategies. After all, - virtually every best-selling author operates, be it consciously or unconsciously, according to one or several communication strategies, according to certain guidelines. This is what we could term a very personal success formula. Oftentimes, it comprises mountains of know-how. The most important study would thus consist of scrutinizing best-selling and long-selling authors. Incidentally, the most successful long-sellers have been writers who communicate religious and philosophical content. A study of the techniques employed in, say, the Bible, the Bhagavad-Gita, the Vedas, the Tao Te Ching and the Koran would, as I indicated previously, have to be the first in line, followed by an analysis of globally best-selling authors. A professional would, of course, keep the focus on "How was this written?" Naturally, the methods would have to be communicated in such a way as to be applicable today. The third prong of this approach would entail analyzing other power formulas or effective communication strategies used by other best-selling authors in detail. It would be the most rewarding
a
Mehler, Ha. A. How Do I Set Up My Own Insurance Business? 2"d ed. Bonn-Bad Godesberg: Rentrop Verlag, 1990. Sales techniques play an prominent role in this book as well. The book is a seller. 23 Mehler, Ha. A. How Professionals Sell Computers. Hamburg: Reidar Verlag, 1987. 22
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task imaginable, even though it would be permeated with more controversy than the atom bomb because then you would be in a position to pass judgment on the atom bomb. Let's recap. Every publishing house has its own take on what success is all about. Every best-selling author uses his or her own techniques. Systematic study in this area really ought to enjoy an entirely different relevance than that accorded your average English degree program, where you generally slog your way through interpretive approaches. Instead of looking at the how, i. e. the techniques, you read criticisms of the criticisms of the books no one ends up reading. How is it possible to ignore facts of such importance? There are literary masterpieces that have never, ever, ever been analyzed from the standpoint of getting books written. A study in this area would, in my opinion, payoff ten thousand fold.
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Let's cast our gaze in an entirely different direction, toward a topic that, however, only appears to be dissimilar on the outside - creativity. This field has never been systematically investigated and is constantly surrounded with the halo of genius. Words such as "genius," "imagination," and "talent" haunt the land this word inhabits - holy words everyone of them, and inviolable ones. Be that as it may, artists and writers are occasionally confronted with the unanswered question of "where" their inspiration and brilliant ideas came from. Some of the more insolent of these artists have some of the most bizarre answers at the ready and seriously maintain that their Muses are drawn to the stimulating smoke of their pipe, freshly filled with robust tobacco, or to a good, bracing shot of whiskey or to their felt slippers lined with white satin. You have to determine whether this kind of question can be answered at all. After all, aren't imagination and creativity unfettered by definition? But it's as obvious as the book in your hands that imagination can most certainly not be attributed to alcohol or a polka-dot bathrobe and is very slippery when it comes to trying to squeeze it into a box. Any attempt to wedge art or creativity into a fixed frame appears to be condemned to failure from the very onset. Remember that art is the twin sister of freedom and no one, but no one is harder to boss around than a truly creative individual. Despite this admission, I would still like to try to set forth my own very personal credo on creativity. Indeed, the question has always fascinated me. For that reason, I attempted again and again to ascertain when creativity, imagination, inspiration "worked" the best for me, why everything appeared to work so perfectly in a particular moment, why the Muse had just kissed me and what the cause, the occasion, the reason was for everything just falling into place, for the words literally tumbling out of the typewriter onto the white piece of paper before me of their own volition. Thereafter, my aim was to uncover some laws on creativity. These rules might be entirely subjective and private, as I indicated earlier, but that doesn't prevent them from being an enormous help to me. I also think that there is no more interesting field than that of creativity, of imagination. Furthermore, I firmly believe that a systematic
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study of creative processes could touch off a revolution. Here are my results and findings. Perhaps you could assist the tender shoot of imagination, which is all too easily trampled and crushed, to grow and flower by trying out one or two of these points. Let's get right to the core of my observations:
1. The Discovery: Writing's Own Rhythm One of the first things I discovered to be of importance to writing is the flow. The flow is what carries you along. It's a highly interesting phenomenon. You step onto a boat and allow yourself to be pulled along with the current. You enter a foreign world. Your own world. You embark on a journey. To a world of your own making. That's writing! Ideally, writing itself is powered by an inexorable force. You must not interrupt this flow, lest you perpetually place yourself in the way of this force and are propelled out of your own world, the world of your own making. The flow possesses a rhythm, initially of its own creation until it finally swings back to you, the author, and sweeps you along with it. Perhaps you've experienced at some point that, once you've begun to write, suddenly thousands of ideas descend upon you and you can't stop scribbling. In that instant, you've been transported into a very powerful identity. Writers can transform the world! They've transformed the faces of entire cultures. And ruled countries! The competent communicator is the real king, not the ruler in the long robes and the incommodious crown that weighs heavy on his head. The power and the possibility of influencing and creating become palpable in the process of writing. It's an ecstatic state. You're a piece of God, or even the creator of gods. The concrete names these superlatives might take, however, are unimportant. At the core of this issue is the fact that writing itself possesses its own rhythm that can carry the author upwards to the greatest heights. And this rhythm is what you have to use. It's a power that you can only experience by using. This is a subjective suspense technique that beats all others hands down.
1. Once More: Standpoint and Perspective There is another phenomenon which I'd like to touch on in connection with writing. It fact, it's possible to literally slip into your own story and identify
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with the hero. You can honestly and truly invent something along the lines of a second "reality" that is so "real" that you yourself are carried along with the plot you created. It's the most heart-pounding of all adventures! It demonstrates that a subjective "reality" can be fully as real as "objective" reality. It's incredible but true, you can tumble into your own story! There's no question that you can step into your own space - a space you created - and suddenly find yourself honestly and truly on the planet which you constructed and which you're now picturing in your mind's eye. Furthermore, you can experience the world from your hero's perspective. In that case; you are "thinking" as your protagonist, you feel as he does, you sense his aches and pains and tremble with him. Authors can also slip into other, different roles, just as an actor slips into different costumes. They can experience the "world" from the enemy's perspective, or from the perspective of, say, the enemy's servant. Typically, the most important perspective is that of the hero. Switching roles is also worth considering, perhaps to take up the point of view of the hero's wife, stricken with worry that she might never see her husband return home. The bottom line is that authors have to be able to switch from one perspective to the next. An author perched in the body of a hero languishing in a dungeon, bound and chained, knows that the rattling of the chains resonates with head-splitting volume in the hero's ears; the author knows the hero's revulsion of the teeming spiders and rats in the pit; the author knows every stone in the prison after so many years of imprisonment. It's an absolutely incomprehensible experience to become a person of your own making, to perceive the world through his eyes and to create or to be suddenly an entirely new self. This is the author's prerogative and his very own bailiwick.
3. The Importance of Making Split-Second Decisions Let's look at another subjective viewpo int, one that is generally ignored despite its enormous importance, that of the conscious and unconscious intentions conceived and carried out, in every second of writing. I hold it to be a fact that, when writing, authors will make ten, twenty or a hundred decisions about their writing every second, even every millisecond. Most authors are oblivious to this fact. The important point, however, is that you can choose to make positive or negative decisions. I myself maintain the resolve (without needing to remind
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myself of the fact) -
To To To To To
make the book a best seller, serve the reader as best I can, spin an exciting yarn, whether fiction or non-fiction, create humor wherever appropriate, and inspire the reader.
I never, ever, write on the basis of second-class decisions. Nor do I put myself down - at least not during the sacred phase of creation. To put it another way, I write as fast as the devil and feel like a god. The crux is to keep in mind that you think secretly (unconsciously). For instance, the following thoughts might creep into your consciousness in a fraction of a second: -
"It doesn't have to be all that good this time" or "The publisher will think it's okay" or "The conclusion could have been done better, but it'll pass muster the way it is!" etc. , etc.
"Secretly" thinking lousy, second-class thoughts will cause the quality of your text to suffer. The topic of "decisions" (when writing) is thus of paramount importance because first-class (or second-class) decisions can determine the result of your hard work. "The best of the best" should be your intention when you write.
4. The Dynamism and Raw Power of Truth You, the author, can always find something to hide behind. You can present your opinion so that it doesn't get stuck in the craw of: your your your your
publisher, reader, critic or friends.
This ensures that "the other" can digest it. Gobble it up. Not consider it objectionable. Identify with what has been said. Of considerable interest, however, is that a writer who communicates
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precisely and clearly, lucidly and unmistakably, honestly and genuinely that which she wanted to communicate - without considering the opinions of others - is a writer who is making use of her full potential. The mere fact of writing the truth thrusts a writer, a creative individual into a mood, into a state that is miles above the everyday, average "social" busybodying. At the same time, it's unspeakably liberating to be honest because truth is truth and it has the power to silence lies. By allowing a glimmer of the truth to peek out through her lines, the author becomes a staggeringly powerful writer. Old buildings collapse and new mental empires can be erected. It's an infinitely powerful feeling. In wiping away considerations, conceptions and what-ifs, you free yourself up to write for real. The feeling resembles being released from heavy iron shackles. It's like relearning how to fly. And then write, write, write what you really think! And it will flow, flow, flow.
5. A Code of Ethics for Authors Food for thought - "When do you write best? When is your writing really exciting? When do you surpass even the kings in the business? When does it flow as rapidly as a headlong downhill ski sprint?" There's another subjective, highly interesting experience of mine I don't plan on keeping under wraps. It flows for me like greased lightning when my own morals are in order. When my "nose is clean." I don't mean just that it's your obligation to yourself as a writer not to prostitute yourself, not to hire your pen out to miscreants: What I mean is that your personal morals have to be in tip-top shape if you want your writing to be gripping. After all, you can't tear a flourishing plant out of the soil just for the pleasure of it and then turn around and write a good nonfiction work on gardening. You can't stretch a frog out between two electrodes, shoot electricity through its body and then write a poem. It has also been drawn to the world's attention much too infrequently that literati possess an unimaginable power. Writers have established religions and destroyed global civilizations. They've built and tom down philosophical and political empires. They've hurled the masses into abject moral misery and taught people to be upright, noble and wise. They've brought about the downfall of entire cultures and created global empires of the mind and of civilization. They've provided people with reasons to live and to die. And I believe that for precisely that very reason is it so important for an author to formulate his or
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her very own personal code of ethical conduct. Here's my own code of conduct, which has aided me to expand and grow significantly. § 1 Never swear to help individuals or groups that pursue destructive goals. Never use the power of your pen to help promulgate injurious intentions. §2 Don't subjugate yourself to the power of money. Your power is infinitely greater. Money can buy bodies. Ideas can possess souls. § 3 Never permit yourself to remain silent in the face of injustice. §4 Write the truth.
The truth must be expressed boldly and repeatedly.
§ 5 You don't write for publishers, editors, critics or any experts. audience. §6 Don't allow yourself to be gagged. communication.
Serve your
Don't allow anyone to murder your
§ 7 Speak with people every day. Cultivate an endless curiosity. § 8 Demonstrate
your principles in practical life.
Practice what you preach.
§9 Don't permit yourself to produce anything less than the very best quality. Work unceasingly on perfecting and improving the technical/formal and the content-based aspects of your writing. § 10 Refer to sources you use in your works. Quote precisely. Give credit to those who inspired you. Make sure to thank those responsible. At this stage in our ruminations, it's interesting to follow the fates of real creativity teams that have operated on our planet and that still operate here. One figure I find absolutely fascinating in this regard is Wernher von Braun, one of the key individuals in aerospace technology. He is one of the great minds behind launching humans into outer space and onto other planets. It's a source of enormous pleasure to follow the creativity team's progress while working under von Braun's direction. The work was carried out with
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overwhelming optimism and enthusiasm. Excitement, commitment, verve and zest describe the mood prevalent in Werner von Braun's team. But this creativity team collapsed. Why? There are two main reasons: Opening up outer space and other planets, solar systems and galaxies to humanity is a forthright, pure and clean undertaking. It is linked to so much adventure and opportunity for the human race to survive that it almost makes you wild with excitement. Indeed, it enables humans to experience a new lifestyle on other planets. It removes people from the blackmailing influence of insane arms dealers on Earth, who basically hold all of humanity hostage in fear and horror. Additionally, discoveries of unforeseeable importance will be made in medicine, physics, chemistry, biology and philosophy once we commence living in outer space. We will learn to think in entirely different terms. Indeed, we should never lose sight of this clear, clean goal of conquering outer space through technological advancement. But let's return to our text. Why did von Braun's creativity team go under? The answer is simple. The original, crystal-clear, ethical goal was undermined. The moment the project began to deal with the first baby steps of toddling out into outer space, some madmen, the arms dealers and warmongers, immediately thought of war. War in outer space. So it came to be that the original, ethical, moral, lofty goal was corrupted and replaced by a destructive one. That was the beginning of the downfall of creativity. Creativity lives on the back of morals! Money began to play an ever greater role. Funding flowed from Washington through various channels to the spaceship designers. The financial backers then tried to maximize their influence, funneling billions of dollars into the project. The (alleged) program sponsors (it was in reality the population whose taxes paid for the space experiment) indirectly blackmailed the creativity team. Wernher von Braun finally gave up and left the stage. Thus, it's possible to analyze why creativity teams split up. It's a highly interesting undertaking. Why did the Beatles split up? Writers' circles? In my opinion, ethical conduct was the glue holding the group together and once it deteriorated, the members fell apart. Ethics and creativity are bosom buddies. These lines are, to my mind, therefore more than just the naive idealism of an author. My experience has shown me that ethics are the sine qua non of creativity and with it real knowhow, above and beyond any ideologies and world views.
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One more comment on my own behalf. If you're already a hard-nosed writer, who has been through it all and seen it all and are more hard-boiled than a nine-minute egg, you might snicker at my code of conduct. But I'd like to draw your attention to something. When I discovered the ethics factor, I wasn't interested in promoting morals for their own sake. Of course you could point to Shakespeare and Goethe, who probably still ,have such resonance and enjoy such prestige in our society because they were so respectable and because they insisted on placing ethics on the royal throne. Many successful writers only wielded their pens in support of ethical pursuits, which were naturally defined differently by each writer. It would be worth carrying out a separate study and a dissertation on enumerating the myriad ideals that served as sources of inspiration for poets. Practically every great author struggled for the right to ethics - a highly remarkable circumstance! But, as I mentioned earlier, I have a very practical reason for my interest in this topic. In my case, my conclusion was preceded by the subjective observation of when my writing was at its best, when the letters practically tumbled out of the typewriter of their own free will, when writing became an unstoppable flood. My findings - ethics. I'm unable to boil the results down to anything else and it should be understood that I have no desire to champion a particular moral code. This is my goal: Every individual holds certain things to be good, correct, decent and precious, right? If a certain writer's writing is informed by this entirely subjective understanding of what is right and decent, it enables his writing to attain a fascinating flow. This circumstance I'm drawing your attention to is subjective and technical.
6. Subjective Suspense Techniques The following creativity techniques are fundamentally based on the suspense techniques set forth in Chapter III of this book. (l)There is a trick you can apply in order to provoke a highly subjective "state of suspense," which then pumps mo.re "suspense" into the story. The trick consists of imagining that, say, a gangster is standing behind you right now with a loaded revolver. He's threatening to shoot you if you don't
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immediately write an excellent story in no time flat. In other words, you can imagine mortal danger that affects yourself. By the way, you don't have to picture a thug threatening you. You could also, say, hang a noose around your neck in order to physically and palpably suggest death by hanging ... The point is that you can use your own imagination to catapult yourself into an extreme state of suspense. An example taken from "literary history" illustrating this technique are the 1001 Arabian Nights. The narrator of these stories, Sheherezade, will pay with her life if she fails to maintain the sultan's interest by telling him an extremely exciting story. A fabulous trick! The storyteller knows that it will mean her death not to spin exciting and gripping stories. (2) Another technique consists of imagining that you have no time. Most authors do not work worse under time pressure - they work better! For example, you can picture having an important appointment in two hours (which you can have or not; the only really important thing is imagining that you do have one) and that in the two hours remaining, you have to write ten outstanding pages. Subjectively believing that you have very little time can also act as a "suspense technique." This imaginary lack of time is then often reflected "objectively" in the text that was penned in these circumstances. Remember - action means "a lot of plot and very little time." Feeling rushed will often be transported from the writer to the writer's own story. You can imagine lack of time or mortal dangers. It would also be possible to put yourself in other states. But uppers, alcohol or drugs of any kind are entirely unsuitable because they hamper your imagination in a very brief period of time, although musicians love to claim on occasion that they help. But take a listen to psychedelic music, with its monotonous tempos or insane, crazy rhythms, that was probably composed by musicians who were working under the influence of drugs. Drugs, uppers and pills are truly pathetic methods; they destroy artists. Autobiographies of many superstars are sufficient proof of this fact.
7. Criticism of Critics There's a fascinating topic known as "criticism. " It's incredible. Enthralling. Seductive. I'm sure that you've read my true opinion between the lines of my
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ironic comments. But let's get serious. Deadly serious. In fact, this is the trickiest and most dangerous topic for writers, or for artists period. On the one hand, being written about comes with the territory. On the other, it can mentally kill and castrate writers. I've met top-notch writers - the best of the best imaginable - who were mentally murdered by critics. The reason is that criticism causes you to obsess. It directs your attention inwards and not outwards. The funny thing is that negative and positive criticism is capable of doing this. An artist who has been praised beyond all earthly measure for one of his creations might fixate on a technique and a topic - and lose in the process. There are certainly some potentially persuasive comments on this subject, such as "Yes, but shouldn't you allow others to voice their opinion?" "Perhaps it might be positive criticism?" Let's keep this short and sweet - don't buy into this bilge! The only exception I accept is when a critic precisely indicates where a printing or typographical error was made, in what part of the book, on which page, which line. In other words, whenever there's a distinction made. In all other cases, I forget criticism! Completely! Professionals ignore critics. Sometimes they don't even take the time to poke fun at them. Salvador Dali, for example, only measured the quantity of criticism written about him by determining how many newspapers had reported on him and how many centimeters thick the pile of articles was. He was only interested in whether or not he was being "talked about. " What he didn't care about was what was being said. There's yet another tricky mechanism that impinges upon the subject of criticism. Naturally, there's no objection to you continuously improving your spelling. And your grammar. And polishing your techniques. And becoming ever more professional. But if you have a run-in with some of these meanspirited, pathetic figures who are so unpleasantly insistent on correcting you, you'll eventually hang up writing. One day, the writing will stop. After a certain number of criticisms, your self-confidence, your desire and your love for a particular subject dissolve into thin air. I would just love to list all the English teachers who've written the most cutting things with a bright red marker on your essays. If you were sitting
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right across from me, I would insist that you pull out your own marker and write down all the humiliations you've suffered at the hands of these critics. This act alone would help you to distance yourself from it all. You would be able to spit on the list and recognize that these so and sos, these murderers of communication were themselves sorry figures who were only attempting to halt you, stop you and to humiliate you. You might even want to set up your own personal guidelines that would nip any similar thing in the bud. You could do something to fight these creatures, you could deal a blow against these people. It follows that the first step towards becoming a writer consists of shaking off these assassins of communication. So first and foremost - ban all criticism from your "ego" - your English teacher's criticism, for example. Or your mother's. Your father's. Your brother's. Your aunt's. Your sister's - or anyone's at all. Keep a lookout for people who are "concerned. "You know who I mean, people who "only want the best for you" and intersperse little "harmless" comments such as "Why are you even bothering to write? You know you can't make a living writing. " Or anything along those lines. An editor at a publishing house can be a treacherous figure, ambushing you by sending back a manuscript with cloyingly polite words such as, "Our negative response should not be construed as a negative comment on the quality of your manuscript ... " - the worst comment that can ever be made! Beware of this type of viciousness! An editor who states that the manuscript is "too bold," "too reckless," or whatever, who gently hints that you can't write is digging your spiritual grave. Perhaps the Nobel Prize will one day be awarded to someone who has listed all the subtle methods of criticism, thereby setting a new artistic renaissance into motion. You have to know, however, that there are subtle ways of humiliating people. Okay? The real meat of this point resides in the intention factor. Even words whose meaning is harmless can tear right through you if their intention has directed its razor-sharp point at killing you as a creative individual. Let's assume that you've eliminated these vultures from your memory. Deleted. Eradicated and swept them aside. At this point, entirely new worlds will open themselves up to you. It feels as though you've been reborn. An enormous influx of strength infuses your bones. Now what? Well - write. Write. Write. Heck, just sit down right now, at your typewriter or pick up a pen or pencil and write! Quantity is what allows
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you to learn and achieve quality. Speaking is just as important! By speaking a lot, you learn how to speak and how to write. After all, it also involves dealing with words. So start speaking more as of this very moment! Without any periods or any commas! Okay? And never let anyone gag you. Only by letting your mouth run will you learn to talk and write! Communicate more than you ever have before. Let's take a look at the last topic to be included under the heading "criticism." This is the most subtle and most dangerous of all by far. I'm talking about self-criticism. In fact, you can doubt yourself into an early creative grave. Whenever you criticize yourself, you're behaving like a fencer who runs himself through for lack of an enemy to fight. I hope that an expert will one day turn her attention to what must be a very interesting experiment - listing all the ways you can criticize yourself. Now, there's nothing wrong with professionalism! Striving to improve your own quality constantly and steadily is a totally different story, however. Self-criticism often causes a work to be re-written fifty times without there being any noticeable "improvement." Self-criticism is treacherous for the simple reason that no one expects to have an enemy in his or her own camp. Here's how the game works. You think a particular idea and in the same instant, twenty reasons occur to you why the idea "won't work." It's bad. Worthless. Too difficult. Too elaborate, etc. etc. This brand of reason is the assassin of works of art and artists. Recognize an old enemy? Evidently no one has ever drawn attention to this mechanism. So you have three types of foes to tackle, official critics, "good friends" (of times past and times present) and yourself. The good news is that recognizing the enemy is half the battle.
1. Jack London's Techniques Since we're in the thick of discussing creativity techniques, the sources of inspiration, the very "philosophy" of writing, one comment should not go unsaid: Every author has developed his or her very own, very special and
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very personal literary credo. So if you want to track down creativity like another Sherlock Holmes, you have to rifle through biographies of great authors. This approach will uncover more than one secret. Let's look at Jack London's life from this angle. How did he go about writing? What allowed him to rise to become the most-read writer of an entire era? What is the secret of his immense success? Let's rummage through his biography in search of gold, in search of creativity. When you examine Jack London's life, the first thing that occurs to you is that he was an amazing guy. A real character. A wild man. Before getting into the nitty-gritty, please allow me to make a comment on my own behalf. Whenever writing a work, be it a biography or a plot line or whatever, you should always construct the entire work toward a firecracker, a surprise at the end. At least, that's what's taught in good writing schools. And I've pointed to this technique on several occasions. But when discussing Jack London's biography, the technique is unnecessary. It's an almost impossible task to lead the reader systematically towards a climax, for the simple reason that London's life was a chain of exciting events. In the course of his life, he experienced one breath-taking, heart-pounding adventure after another. It's unbelievable! Having said that, I would like to conclude our trek through his life with what will probably be an astonishing analysis of the reasons why this author managed to become the best-paid and most popular writer of his time. But let's first turn our attention to his incredible eventful life. Indeed, it's so colorful, so hectic, so intense, so improbable that it takes your breath away. But I swear that the following lines are the Gospel truth. The most successful author in America, and probably the most copied penpusher of the 20th century, always wrote a minimum of 100 lines per day, a minimum he himself set. However, he began his life as poor as a church mouse. London, born on the 12th of January, 1876 in San Francisco, went through his childhood with an endless rumbling in his belly. He was up before dawn to deliver newspapers before school. On weekends, he earned a few extra pennies selling ice cream. The family lived in a sordid hut; sanitary facilities were things others had. Jack only wore patched, tattered rags and suffered racking hunger pains every day. Educational opportunities were modest, if they existed at all. If London hadn't devoured books like a madman,
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he would have lived his life in ignorance. At the age of fifteen, .he earned meager wages, working no less than ten, but sometimes eighteen or even twenty hours a day in a canning factory. How did this fellow manage to free himself from these miserable circumstances and climb to reach the highest heights? And how was this greenhorn, trapped in the deepest poverty, able to pull himself up by his own bootstraps? Well, here's the story ... For months, London had been suffering in the most demeaning situation imaginable in a canning factory. But one day he rebelled. He decided to put an end to it and chucked the whole wretched business, having made the irrevocable decision not to work so crushingly hard for a few cents a day. He had heard of the legend of the oyster pirates. These fellows plundered the oyster banks of San Francisco Bay and hawked the delicious, edible shellfish for hefty prices. Good money could evidently be earned much more easily selling oysters. The moment London caught wind of the fact that one of the older oyster pirates wanted to divest himself of his boat, the Razzle Dazzle, the boy scraped together $300 and bought the vessel. The very next night, he set out on his first heist. The money rolled in, just as he had hoped. Of course, he had to keep a sharp eye out for the police. He also had to hold his own against the other pirates, who initially didn't want such a young sprout as London, the youngest captain of them all, in their midst. And he had to struggle against his own fear. But he soon made a name for himself. His companions eventually dubbed him the "Prince of the Oyster Pirates" in honor of his having risen to become the most successful of all thieves. By now, London was earning $180 do lIars per night. We don't know what caused the turnaround, but we do know that one day Jack London received an offer he couldn't refuse from the police. They wanted him to work for them. To switch sides. To hunt down the oyster bandits and help them put a halt to their underground trade. He began working for the police, making life very difficult for the pirates. About half-way through the operation he changed his mind and signed on as a sailor on the Sophie Sutherland, an eighty-tanner headed for Japan, Siberia and Korea. For seven long months, he toiled as a seal-hunter, a sailor and as the ship's gofer. In the process, he saw and experienced more at a tender age than possibly any writer before him. And, as the ship's boy and the youngest crew member, he suffered beatings at the hands of the hardened, jaded, older sailors.
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Once he returned, a little worse for wear and little wiser, he immediately sought work at a jute mill. Ten hours of work for a single dollar, he later complained. But - he published his very first story. Eventually, he hatched a plan to become an author, or rather a great, a famous, an extremely successful author. As a stop-gap measure he studied to become an electrician, but he was roped into shoveling coal "as a preparation." He didn't enjoy the job and chose to explore the world. He became a "professional" tramp. Being a hobo meant running the risk of being hurled off of moving trains by unsympathetic train watchmen. It also meant struggling to survive in the freezing cold, wearing tick-infested clothing. Hobos were among the poorest of the poor. Battered by fate, many were infirm, antisocial or criminal. London didn't care one iota about all that. He traveled to Chicago, New York and Niagara Falls. At the Falls, he was arrested and thrown in jail for 30 days. London, now 19 years old, returned to his home town with the worldly experience of a thirty-year-old man. His dream of becoming a writer had not left him. He worked long and hard, struggling with words and molding grammar to suit him. "On the side," he managed to complete some private studies and was admitted to college. He turned his back on a college education after two semesters but writing remained his passion. "Every day, he wrote more than fifteen hours'?" - essays, stories, poems, humorous poems and tragic epics. But not a newspaper, not a single magazine would buy his manuscripts. London had to sell his books and clothes and borrow money in order to survive. But he continued to write, undaunted. He learned that Fortuna is an obstinate goddess, sometimes demanding to be courted for many years. He fought on, obsessively scribbling. In the name of his dream he took on any job that presented itself, ironing shirts, laundering underwear, or whatever afforded him the most time to write. But there remained one last hurdle that fate had put between him and success. One day, London heard tales of mind-boggling gold finds in distant Alaska. Shortly thereafter, newspapers told of a handful of vagabonds who had made their fortune there and had become rich, practically overnight. London caught a bad case of gold fever. The next day he quit his job and set out to become a 24
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millionaire. He got the essential equipment - fur coat, boots, blankets, tent, oven, snowshoes, tools and a thousand other bagatelles - and set off. In three months, he had covered about 1,200 miles with some very cumbersome baggage. The "Canadian police had stipulated that every goldhunter was to carry a ton of equipment and $500 in cash on them." (Ayck) He finally arrived in Alaska, but his trials only multiplied. He had to wrestle with hunger, gold fever, envy, thieves and sneaks. But he searched on, eternally hopeful, despite snow fields that could drive a man insane. He suffered through dangers and interminable disappointments. He never found a single speck of gold dust. What he did bring back with him were copious notes he had taken, on the people, their behavior, their personalities and the sweeping snowy landscape. In 1898 London left the prospecting territories empty-handed and navigated a tiny boat 1,700 miles down the Yukon river where he signed on a ship as a stoker. He made his way south as passenger, sailor and tramp until he reached his home town, penniless, burned-out and bitterly disappointed. I can imagine how he must have felt, bled dry and burned to ash. Nevertheless, he pulled himself together and continued writing. He wrote like he was possessed by the devil. He submitted one story after another until he finally received that long-awaited answer. One of his short stories had been accepted! He danced and cheered. The price paid for his short story? A thousand words brought in a dollar and twenty five cents! But it was a beginning. Soon after, he hocked his raincoat, suit and bicycle, rather than accept an attractive job offer, but that made more time for writing. And one day, his first real success came knocking. at the door. One of the best-known literary journals accepted another one of his short stories. His inconceivable stubbornness had carried him a long way. He received what was an unusually high payment for his story, $120. He was able to get his things out of hock, payoff his debts and pay his rent. Soon, another large publisher offered to publish a volume of his short stories. London was on cloud nine. And still producing. He wrote and wrote - for example, stories about legendary gold finds in Alaska, never forgetting to add a surprising twist at the end of his stories. The result? Jack London won. Won an audience! Won a job, money, respect, fame and acclaim. Notably, at that point he began to research systematically, He neatly noted everything he could uncover about ground-breaking progress, interesting research findings and real news. He set up a comprehensive card catalog in which he kept records of all his discoveries
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and news. As if that wasn't work enough, after his first relatively large success he began to write even more, if that was possible. He didn't restrict his publications to short stories. He wrote criticism and articles. He worked his fingers raw and published by the ream. Even as the cash rolled in, he never rested. He tirelessly improved the quality of his work. He elevated precise and meticulous research to a high art as no other author had before, literally descending into the underworld of the British capital, for instance, to explore life in the London slums. He disguised himself in old ragged clothes so that he could observe his surroundings without being too conspicuous. This enabled him to acquire the precise, irreplaceable knowledge that set him apart from other pen-pushers. From an unpublished writer to a published author, from a poorly-paid writer to a well-paid author, Jack London climbed the ladder of success inexorably to the top. And then it mushroomed in 1909. Sales of his novel, The Call of the Wild, reached 750,000. On the first day of the book's release, with the ink barely dry, 10,000 copies were snatched up by ravenous readers. These numbers propelled London beyond all records previously set in the United States. Just for the sake of comparison, Mark Twain's Adventures of Tom Sawyer sold 375,000 copies in 1879. Joel Chandler Harris' Uncle Remus: His Songs and Sayings sold about 500,000 copies. A cool half million copies were also sold of Sir Arthur Conan Doyle's immortal Sherlock Holmes. Uncle Tom's Cabin sold about 625,000 copies. But every last one of them was beaten - by Jack London! Then the frenzy to bring London's works to print and the screen began in earnest. . The first filmed version of the The Sea Wolf was released in 1913. And in 1914, no fewer than five novels penned by this incomparable author were adapted for the screen. By 1958, forty-two films based on his works had been released "In 1913, London described himself as the best-paid and most popular author in the world. " (Ayck) A dream came true, a wish became reality. This story really ends here, at least in literary terms, but please allow us to add a few superlatives .. The flow of dollars that entered this former street waif's coffers grew exponentially. London invested heavily in real estate and bought anything
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else his heart desired. Fans by the hundreds clamored to meet him. Joernaliszs, actors, politicians - they all courted his favor. He afforded himself the I of maids and other household servants. In short, he lived like a king. But his research and writing continued at a furious pace. The year 190 saw him in Yokohama, where he reported on the Russo-Japanese War. There he was arrested and jailed for a short time. When he returned home, he experienced first-hand how celebrities are hounded by the public, how unbelievably nerve-wracking being at the center of attention is. He had savored the sweet foretaste of the delicious wine of fame for so long. Now he had to endure its bitter aftertaste. His fame and wealth continued to grow. He became the leader of the Socialist Party but later broke with it in disappointment near the end of his life. He sailed to Hawaii and Samoa, took up farming, bred exotic animals and drank himself into a stupor, albeit with the finest liquor money could buy. His agricultural interests got him involved in breeding horses, cultivating a eucalyptus plantation and setting up an experimental farm incorporating the latest scientific research. At the same time, he was producing books in staggering quantities. But his burgeoning need for money eventually drove him to buy ideas for novels and stories. He bought them from, among others, Sinclair Lewis, who was to receive the Nobel prize for literature. Nothing stood in the way of his success - thirteen million copies of his books were published during his lifetime - in the former Soviet Union alone! But we'll stop here and briefly gloss over the part of his life where he began to swallow disappointment after disappointment. He sank into a haze of alcohol and opium. As a result of these abuses, suicide extinguished his brilliant life force. I prefer not to dwell on such tragic things. Out of respect for his genius, this short biography of the great Jack London should end at the peak of his fame and power. What we should ask ourselves is what are the real secrets to the success of the man once called the world's best author? To my mind, there are at least five success formulas to be distilled out of London's biography. Each is more exciting than the next. Success formula number one: I've already mentioned the first reason for his unprecedented success earlier in this book. Jack London studied vocabulary each and every day, like someone learning a foreign language. Good, rich, vivid, striking words. He systematically
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expanded his vocabulary. He also allowed the works of other authors to improve secret to his creativity simply consisted of his learning He opened his eyes. He sought out best-selling authors that's pretty easy to do. Their books can be purchased appears that no one really looks at them to professionally
his vocabulary. One from other geniuses. as his teachers. And everywhere. But it usurp their secrets.
Let's move on to success formula number two: Jack London also meticulously studied the vocabulary employed by the characters he was intending to write about. He enthralled his readers with a realistic atmosphere that reflected their lives. He listened to what certain target groups - to borrow some terminology from the sociologists - were saying. The biographer Thomas Ayck describes his approach as "using technical terms from the working life of the characters he portrayed, detailed information about the devices and tools in order to create a realistic prose. Backstay, topsail, ketch, spinnaker, in short, words from sailor's lingo ... "25 Because you can never get enough of a good thing, here's success formula number three: Jack London phrased his own literary credo to read, "Study Stevenson and Kipling and see how they eliminate themselves and create things that live, and breathe, and grip men, and cause reading lamps to burn overtime. . .. Get your good strong phrases, fresh and vivid; write intensely, not exhaustively or lengthily."> In other words, London is pleading for fresh, intelligible, powerful, terse grammar and railing against epic breadth, an eternal bore. Let's get down to success formula number four: His unbelievable stubbornness, his unwavering belief in himself, his unshakeable resolution to become a writer should be taken as a philosophy of life. In fact, London was able to swallow hundreds of rejections, just like a good boxer shrugging off ten sharp jabs to the chin without batting an eye. This stamina is what sets him apart from other literati. Let's look at the last modus operandi, success formula number five, without Ayck, Thomas. Jack London. Reinbeck bei Hamburg: Rowohlt Taschenbuch-Verlag, 1976. pp. 94-95. Stone, Irving. Jack London, Sailor on Horseback: A Biography by Irving Stone. New York: Signet Press. 1978. p 140. 25
26
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a doubt the most interesting and the most important of all literary success formulas for writers, pen-pushers, poets and scribblers. It can be boiled down to one thing. Jack London was a top-notch researcher. He stuck his nose into everything. He went everywhere, high and low, north and south. He examined every detail personally. Let's not forget - he himself prospected for gold - and was thus able to write better and more precisely about gold-seeking than any other author. He knew life on boats, ships and barges first-hand and was therefore able to write "realistic" novels about ships and the high seas. The result: global best sellers! Jack London also knew about huskies, those famous sled-dogs, first-hand. The result: sellers with and about huskies. I think I can stop at this point. The crux of this section is research! Jack London was as curious as a child discovering the world. And he didn't care one whit about personal danger. He didn't live your average, obedient, bourgeois life. He flung himself directly into the maelstrom known as life, elevating the obligation to research to an art form. Many best-selling authors don't do it any other way. They research! Personally. On site. First-hand. Take a look at the incomparable John Grisham. A trained lawyer who knows his way around all the legal tricks, dodges and stratagems and can write highly competently about them. Put Ken Follett under the microscope, dissect him and you'll discover that this fellow, a world-wide best-selling author, researches meticulously. Some best-selling authors who write spy novels were themselves secret agents and know the business like the back of their hand. Jack London teaches us that personal experience, personal research is the stuff best sellers are made. That's the gold you should be digging for. It's amazing that the life of one single writer can teach you so much. Jack London talked to everyone. He experienced everything first hand. He observed and took notes. He had been involved in hundreds of professions and had seen thousands of places. As we've seen, every writer has his own sources of inspiration and employs his own subjective creativity techniques.
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9. The Last Secret of Creativity Let's take up the last and perhaps most controversial bit of information. It's clear that there are a host of wrong opinions on the subject of "inspiration. " A widely, yet wrongly held belief is that you can only be inspired by others. Or by your environment. This brand of idea is the product of diverse modern ideologies. So-called "creativity techniques" might even be dangerous if all they do is stuff you with incorrect information. For example, let's take a look at the so-called morphological analysis, an alleged creativity technique. How does it work? Here's an exact quote: "The morphological analysis method calls for identifying the structural dimensions of a problem and examining the relationships among them. The hope is to find some novel combinations. Suppose the problem is "getting something from one place to another via a powered vehicle. "The important dimensions are the type of vehicle (cart, chair, bed); the medium (air, water, snow, hard surface, rollers, rails); the power source (compressed air, internalcombustion engine, electric motor). Thus a cart-type vehicle powered by an internal-combustion engine and moving through snow is the snowmobile. "27 Do you want to know my comment on this technique? Well, perhaps it might work in specific cases, but it is just as likely to impede. It hampers you from seeing situations in an entirely new light. This technique yanks your attention to the separate parts, thereby making it more difficult to concoct the appropriate solutions. It's a creativity technique for idiots. After all, it would have you think only in combination with pre-existing things. This causes you to fixate. Recent progress in physics and chemistry has been made for the very reason that entirely new paths were taken to reach the solution! In other words, everything that limits you also limits your creative potential. Let's take a look at another so-called creativity technique known as synectics. Let's define it first. "William J.J Gordon espoused a very different technique: He begins by defining the problem very vaguely. For example, one company was working on a design for the fastenings on the vaporproof suits worn by workers who handle high-powered fuels. Gordon kept the specific problem a secret and led a discussion on the general problem of "closure," which led to images of diffe27
Kotler, Philip. Marketing Management.
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9th ed. Upper Saddle River: Prentice-Hall, Inc. , 1997. p. 314.
rent closure mechanisms, such as birds' nests, mouths or thread. exhausted the initial perspectives, Gordon gradually introduced refined the problems further. .When the group was getting close to a good solution, Gordon described the problem. Then the group started to refine the solution. These sessions would last a minimum of three hours, for Gordon believed that fatigue plays an important role in unlocking ideas. "28
,a
It's difficult to imagine a technique that would be more off the mark. Exhaustion never "played an important role in unlocking ideas" for me. How wrong can you be? Well, at least by 200 percent. Bogus creativity techniques are by far more dangerous than nonexistent ones because they suggest that they teach know-how. Gordon also suggested that you "Let apparently irrelevant, accidental things suggest analogies that are sources of new viewpoints." Good Lord! Of course, this limits the springboard for ideas to what is already known, which limits you and forces you to look for the source of inspiration outside yourself. It can only be found within you. No one has ever defined the location where inspiration takes place. It resides within the individual. I'm proclaiming clearly and loudly that despite the fact that so-called "creativity techniques" have been bandied about, they are in fact incredibly harmful to your creativity because they are limiting. Of course, you can "orient" yourself by way of all sorts of things - the countryside, other people, your own experience, animals, groups, plants and books. But such orientation limits and directs your attention. The more limited you are, the fewer opportunities you have. To put it simply, to limit = to shrink to create = to expand. Let's turn our attention to another "creativity technique" - brainstorming. "Brainstorming" is a technique employed to arrive at new ideas or solutions to problems. It takes the form of a group discussion in which every individual is free to let his or her thoughts wander. Criticism is not allowed in any form during the brainstorming session. Even contributions that appear to be nonsensical or impossible to implement are welcome." My comment: This is, in fact, one of the few methods that actually works. Kotler, Philip. Marketing Management. Cf. Escherle, Hans J. ; Kaplan, Klaus. pp. 65·66. 28 29
9th ed. Upper Saddle River: Prentice-Hall, Inc. , 1997. p. 315. Munich: Compact Verlag, 1982,
Wirtschaft zum Nachschlagen.
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Let's look at another "creativity technique," "bionics." Another horror, bionics is used in technical design, among other fields. Models are taken from nature and used to design new products. That's "bionics. " But again, I have to warn you that this approach limits creativity. After all, the first principle of creativity is that you don't have to orient yourself to pre-existing patterns. In other words, creative thought when forced to fixate on models, as is the case with bionics, cannot flow freely. This type of technique only serves to provide you with more opportunities to fixate, to limit yourself. I would say that "creativity techniques" in their current form are not merely dubious in nature, they're totally worthless. The fact is that the problem of creativity can't be solved mechanically. If you were to draw up a code of conduct, the first commandment would be to refrain from allowing yourself to be guided by any sort of mechanism. In other words: • Ignore all laws of chemistry and physics. • Ignore all laws - period. To the extent that you fixate on particular laws, you limit your flexibility, mobility and creativity. Get it? You have to learn to function without frantically and fearfully looking for points of reference to latch onto. A truly creative person considers his or her own thoughts to be more valuable and more real than any reality churned out in accordance with rules and mechanical laws. You're right, of course, every creative person adores sources of inspiration. For example, I never miss an opportunity to ask people to tell me the most exciting thing they have ever experienced. I open myself to inspiration by cultivating the art of listening. For someone else, the ne plus ultra might be a Beethoven sonata. A third person might be propelled to the heights of creativity by watching bats mate. Don't misunderstand me, there's nothing wrong with being inspired by ...whatever! To put it another way, anything that expands horizons, brings about more insight, or gets a person into a creative mood is fabulous! But it's dangerous to elevate a subjective source of inspiration to the status of a doctrine. It is deadly to view creativity as being dependent on external events. Do you really want to be more creative? Good. Then take that dung heap of so-called "creativity techniques" from yesteryear and chuck the whole thing into the trash. Don't ever forget that it is you, the individual, who is the source of creativity and inspiration irrespective of hereditary disposition, environment or any of a thousand external
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circumstances. In you there resides an immeasurable creative potential that mere rules and laws can never repress. Creativity is infinite per definition. It might be poetically described as something sacred, immense, intangible and beyond the scope of mortal expression. It is the ability to think thoughts that have never been thought and to bring something original and new into being. Of course you can orient yourself by way of external, pre-existing means. What I am trying to tell you is that you don't have to. Let's venture some predictions about the future of the "field" of creativity. There will be repeated attempts to limit creativity and to reduce the whole subject to a digital format which can be conveniently stored on a computer disk. But it will never work, not because creativity encompasses an infinite number of factors but because, in the final analysis, creativity is not a compendium of pre-existing facts. Never allow anyone to define and limit you as a person or as an artist. Such efforts as the contrived "methods" described above are nothing but the feeble attempts of "social scientists" to understand and define the phenomena of creativity and the artist. Just accept the encouraging fact that creativity is an entirely unknown variable in the human equation. Any attempts to restrict it are nothing more than painful efforts to limit that which is limitless and render finite that which is infinite. Let's take another look at the creativity techniques outlined earlier in this chapter. All of these techniques have the aim of overcoming limitations. For instance when I describe the "flow" of my writing as a creativity technique what that means, essentially, is that I don't allow myself to be bullied around by time. I don't concede any control of my creative functioning to time. When I promote "points of view and perspective" as a creativity method, I am arguing in favor of assuming more points of view, advising you to ignore borders - to cross right over them - and I am advocating expansion. As far as I personally am concerned, (and - please - consider what I'm about to tell you only in those terms) I follow certain creativity laws. They were drawn up by me and are based on my own individual experience. Perhaps you might allow yourself to be inspired by one or more of them.
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THE LAWS OF CREATIVITY I. II. III.
IV. V. VI.
VII. VIII.
IX. X.
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The point of reference for creativity is ultimately one's own self. Creativity is infinite per definition. The source of all creativity lies within the individual. One's childhood, environment, hereditary disposition or sensory impressions are not necessarily the basis of one's "imagination. " As a creative individual, one should not submit to the "authority" of others. One can and should disregard physical and "natural" laws. Philosophical and cultural "laws" and other "sciences" and similar specialized fields can limit creativity and stifle imagination. Take the viewpoint that it is possible to disregard all manifest existence and experience. There exist very subjective factors that act to assist creativity. Although they should not be considered to be objective laws, they can nevertheless be of great subjective magnitude. In other words the works of art and creations of others can act as stimuli. Travel might be an influential stimulus or even one's subjectively pleasant perception of the correct level of ambient sound. There are many thousands of similar experiences and circumstances which might be productively stimulating. But they are all subjective in nature. Creative potential expands in the absence of criticism. One can resolve to be creative. One can make the decision to have a thousand ideas in a day, or even in a single second.
HOW TO WRITE A BEST SELLER (2) So, the wheel has come full circle, as the Bard once said. I hope I was able to pass along at least some ideas and perceptions that will be helpful to you. Don't forget the most important information in this book. Be sure to take every opportunity to speak, communicate, wax philosophi al and ex '0 elf even at the risk of spouting a little hogwash from time to time. On} -' '-' free rein to your own voice will you ever perfect those gra eful lID"" . . somersaults and back flips you'd love to perform just for the sheer jo . 0 i: And keep on writing! Whatever you do, don't allow yourself to be bound an gagged by so-called authorities. Gush like a fountain! Write!! If you would like to pay me the most sincere compliment possible, go directly to your typewriter or pick up your quill and start writing! You don't have to start by writing a 5000 page novel right out of the chute. Write a short story or a novella or any tasty little morsel. You could even start by writing a letter to me telling me how much (I hope!) you loved this book. I'm really looking forward to it!
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Thanks! Writing a book of this caliber is not possible without acknowledging the influence of so many writers. I would like to express my gratitude to the entire tradition of distinguished poets and thinkers such as Aristotle and Horace, but also literally hundreds of contemporary writers who have inspired me. In particular, I would like to mention Agatha Christie, Michael Crichton, Sir Arthur Conan Doyle, Will Durant, Ken Follett, John Grisham, Robert A. Heinlein, Hermann Hesse, E. T.A. Hoffmann, Heinrich von Kleist, Jack London, James A. Michener, E.E. Smith, Jack Vance, Voltaire, Edgar Wallace, Mika Waltari, H.G. Wells, Stefan Zweig and many more. My special thanks go out to L. Ron Hubbard, without whose continual inspiration this book would not have been possible. .
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11111 111111 lililiil ~i~i~llirlilii Irl'~li~iillllllllllll 3 146700604
1051
Park Ridge Public Library 20 S. Prospect Park Ridge, Illinois
60068
APR
2003 DEMeo
ISBN 0-9719-6171-9 90000
9 780971 961715
How To Write A Best Seller Secrets, Techniques and Success Formulas of Best-Selling Authors
PARI
LIBRARY
Mehler. Ha. A.: How To Write a Best Seller: Secrets, Techniques and Success Formulas of Best-Selling Ha. A. Mehler - l" Edition, Art Universe, Inc. 2001 1st Edition © Copyright 2001 by H. Mehler, Clearwater © Copyright electronic publication by Art Universe, Inc. © Copyright of the English version by Art Universe, Inc.
Authors
All rights reserved, particularly the right of reproduction and distribution. No part of this book may be reproduced, stored, or transmitted in any form or by any means, electronic, microfilm, or photocopying. Cover: C.W. Rohrig Illustrations: Julia Beltz English translation: Demian Lessman English language editor: Kathy Baird ISBN: 0-9719-617-9 Copies of this book can be ordered directly from: Art Universe, Inc. 1371 N. Ave 46 Los Angeles, CA 90041 and www.tomorrowsbestseller.com [email protected] Telephone: 323-258-9483 Fax: 323-257-7370
CONTENTS
CONTENTS How To Write a Best Seller I.
ON THE PROWL FOR Top-NoTCH
WORK
1. The Secret of Quality 2. The Importance of Tradition II.
How
TO ExpAND YOUR VOCABULARY PLAYFULLY
1. Grand Theft Vocabulary in Conversations 2. Lifting Words from Long-Selling and Best-Selling Authors 3. The Author's Weapons: Dictionaries III.
How
TO BUILD HEART-POUNDING SUSPENSE SYSTEMATICALLY
Technique Technique Technique Technique Technique Technique Technique Technique Technique Technique Technique Technique Technique Technique Technique Technique Technique Technique Technique Technique IV.
No.1: No.2: No.3: No.4: No.5: No.6: No.7: No.8: No.9: No. 10: No. 11: No. 12: No. 13: No. 14: No. 15: No. 16: No. 17: No. 18: No. 19: No. 20:
Attention in the Future Two Ideas The Surprise The Mystery The Goal The Unusual Violating Conventions The Hero Hating the Villain Danger Action Opposites Attract Reality Passion Humor Enthusiasm Sex, Crime & Big Heads Isolated Suspense Point of View and Perspective To Be Continued ...
SUSPENSE TECHNIQUES - THE NEXT LEVEL
1. The Most Refined Tricks of Best-Selling Authors 2. The Merchant of Souls 3. Surprise Revisited
4
HA. A.
V.
SUCCESS FORMULAS FOR BEST-SELLING AUTHORS 1. 2. 3. 4. 5. 6. 7. 8. 9. 10. 11. 12. 13. 14.
VI.
MEHLER
Intention as a Secret Weapon My Own Personal Credo The Non-Fiction Book, At Your Service How Many English Languages Are There, Anyway? Target Groups and Style Book Titles that Hit the Mark The Art of Research How to Put Order into a Pool of Data How to Create a Well-Conceived Table of Contents The Beginning is Half of the Whole The Scale of Linguistic Skills Pitfalls and Downfalls - and How to Get Around Them The Writing Guild Million-Dollar Formulas for Best Sellers?
CREATIVITY TECHNIQUES: POWER AND MAGIC 1. 2. 3. 4. 5. 6. 7. 8. 9.
The Discovery: Your Own Rhythm Point of View and Perspective Revisited The Importance of Split-Second Decisions The Dynamism and Raw Power of Truth A Code of Ethics for Authors Subjective Suspense Techniques Criticism of the Critics Jack London's Approach The Last Secret of Creativity
5
HOW TO WRITE A BEST SELLER
Allow me to begin by briefly introducing myself. I am the proud author of over 100 books. Many of them have ascended to become sellers or best sellers. The response to about 80 percent of my books has been either good or excellent. I write this so that you know you're talking with a hands-on writer and not a theoretician. A writer who was once described by a journalist as "the most successful. .. author of his generation." Permit me to toot my own horn a few more times. Within three years, I had managed to become one of the most sought-after authors available. Here's how I made it. A former television journalist, I eventually resolved to turn my back on that industry and to try my luck as a writer. I began by writing a book titled How To Start Your Own Real Estate Business, which at first glance seems a rather conservative title. But 10 and behold! The book was a smash hit and sold like hotcakes. The publisher could hardly keep up with the reprints. In the end, sales for this book were hailed as "the best sales results of the publishing house!" In other words, I had begun my career with a best seller! I then penned one hit after another, until I was engaged by the largest paperback publisher in Germany and ten additional publishing houses. I wrote numerous books, including the seller Money: More Wealth, Lower Taxes, a book that sold 20,000 copies in the first month alone, How Pros Motivate, How To Make A Fortune In Real Estate, and Self-Made Men and Millionaires. At one point a large business publishing house listed me on an internal, confidential list of its top 5 best-selling authors. I had taken first, second, fourth and fifth ... I could add even more superlatives here, such as the fact that a stack of articles (at least two feet high) has been published about me, the fact that I've become one of the most highly-paid authors in the market and the fact that my books have been translated into many languages. The list goes on and on. But let's stop here. It's getting a little embarrassing, There's only one reason for me to tell you all this; I myself don't appreciate getting "good advice" galore from people who don't practice what they preach. My personal credo, which has served me very well, is that I only lend my ear to those who can get results. So when I proffer my pearls of wisdom on how to write
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a best seller, I am trying to get you to see the successful hands-on writer in me, nothing more. It's time to get down to brass tacks. How do you write a best seller? Let's back up a few steps first and ask ourselves what a best seller is after all. You might not believe it, but apart from the best sellers that are published in the New York Times or in other high-circulation magazines there is no universal definition of this word! But we still ought to try to understand it better. So, what is a best seller? A best seller is, in fact, dependent on at least three factors: 1. The size of the publishing house is vital. A global publisher might begin to feel satisfied once 20,000 copies are sold per year. A mini-publishing house, on the other hand, breaks out the champagne when 2,000 are sold. 2. Furthermore, it makes a difference whether it's a hardcover or a paperback edition. The basic reason for this is the price of the book. In my estimation, a relatively expensive book can be called a seller after it has sold as few as 5,000 copies per year 3. Finally, the time factor is not to be ignored. No matter if a book sells 20,000 copies, if it takes 2000 years to do so, it goes without saying that it's not a best seller.
-
A good rule of thumb might be large publishing house/paperback 20,000 copies sold per year medium-sized publishing house/hardcover 5,000 copies sold per year
= seller =
seller
These might sound like modest sums to your ears, but if you consider that a book with a price tag of $50 "only" sells 5,000 copies, that adds up to sales of $250,000 in one year, a cool quarter million, in other words. That's not chump change. Now let four more years go by and you're already at $1 million in sales. No one would turn up his or her nose at these numbers. In the publishing industry, there's another animal called a long-seller, the continuously successful seller that sells well over a long period of time. License revenues also playa role when evaluating a book. In addition, there's a difference between sellers and best sellers. By the way, one of the world's most famous publishers once set down a rule of thumb for the definition of "success" in publishing. The gentleman in question was the great German publisher Brockhaus, who also had the dubious distinction of being saddled with a notorious anti-seller. It was by the one and only Arthur Schopenhauer, his
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first work, The World As Will And Representation. Ten years after publication, the first run of 800 copies had still not sold out. But Brockhaus was not daunted by the occasional unsuccessful venture. He once stated his formula for success, "We have to accept that, as a rule, we will lose in ten of twenty undertakings, will break even in five, earn decently in four and earn very well in one."! A highly interesting statement that hints at exactly how publishers think. Let's get back to the original question: How do I write a best seller? Is there any know-how on how to write a best seller? How do you really go about it? A direct answer: Of course such know-how exists. But believe it or not, quite a few of our contemporaries consider it to be one of the loftiest virtues not to leak or pass on real know-how. Business people would sooner bite off their own tongues than to pass on business know-how! I myselflive on the other side of the fence. My personal credo is that information and knowledge should be disseminated, that knowledge should be made available to everyone. What good are the most precious pearls of wisdom and the most profound insights if no one knows them? I therefore have the pleasure of informing you in all modesty that you have an extraordinary book in your hands. The goal of this book is to elucidate the know-how and the techniques of best-selling authors. The groundwork for this book was laid in the course of approximately twenty years spent studying history'S most renowned long-selling authors, from the 16th century through the 20th, as well as current top writers whose names appear again and again on "Top 40" best-seller lists. Fundamentally, what I discovered was that all long-selling and best-selling authors use certain techniques repeatedly and consistently in their writing! Do you understand how momentous such a discovery is? It means that there are evidently rules, laws and techniques that enable a writer to captivate the reader's attention and interest as ifby magic! Indeed, it's fascinating to discover that, without exception, all the top authors use techniques that guarantee that readers remain faithful to them. These techniques enthrall and fascinate readers to the point that they can't put the book down, reading night and day until they've finished it. They have no choice but to keep reading, you see. In the interest of conveying the whole truth and nothing but the truth, I can't edge my way around one particular remark: professionalism is never possible without Barbier, Hans D. & Fides Krause-Brewer, 1987. p. 256.
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working for it! Anyone attempting to tell you any differently is out to hoodwink you. No matter the discoveries you've made, or the insights you may have gained, you have to invest some sweat. And knowing the basic tools of the writing trade is essential. What do I mean by that? Well, let's see if we can find our answer in a topic that has been at the center of growing controversy - non-fiction.
• • • • •
For example, here are a few must-know items: How to systematically extend your vocabulary in a brief period of time. Methods you will need in order to devise a well-conceived table of contents. The ideal title for your book. How to bring order to a pool of data. Success formulas for non-fiction sellers.
I could go on, but let's leave it at that. I prefer to allocate the answers to these questions to the category of craftsmanship, although another writer might refer to them as (literary) trade secrets. Above and beyond these "secrets," an author needs what might be termed creativity techniques. First a frank admission on this subject. The question of how to write best sellers has always interested me. There is of necessity a subjective factor as well; you yourself are an essential variable in the equation. Particularly helpful were certain methods that allowed me to write entirely different books than the "typical" author would have. I discovered them over the years by observing when I wrote best, when the ideas and words literally poured out of me and when I was spurred to top performance. This is how I developed the method I use to write outstanding books. If you will, this book is the result of a "hot" investigation. Questions about the "secret" of best-selling authors pop up again and again. Journalists never stop wondering where top writers get their ideas from. So what is the source of their inspiration? I asked myself how to write a best seller (and not how to write books) simply because I despise mediocrity. The swamp of the commonplace has never interested me. I personally think best-selling authors are not made of the same stuff that engenders mediocrity, acquiescence, ingenuousness, agreement and middle class conformism. On the contrary, I think best-selling authors have completely different characteristics. One of the first hurdles you have to clear is to break out of the commonplace and to allow yourself the luxury of entertaining your own opinions.
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touches on the very topic that has been reserved for the last chapter of this book. By the way, you've probably noticed that these comments are a small preview of what this book has in store for you. I think I can offer you some fascinating adventures. But I'll let you be the judge of that!
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On The Prowl For Top-Notch Work
If you ask yourself what constitutes a really good book, you'll inevitably find yourself faced with the venerable tradition of august philosophers and canny writers asking the same question. So in the interest of intellectual sincerity, I would like to review the conclusions these thinkers came to.
1.
The Secret of Quality
Before I launch into that, however, please allow me to weave an interesting episode into this chapter. My official vocation, to use a bureaucratic term, began in 1976 at ZOF, Europe's largest television station. I had just graduated from college when an incredible opportunity suddenly presented itself - an internship at ZOF. The editor-in-chief informed me in all confidence that there was a chance I could be hired on a permanent basis if I produced "good films" and "quality work." For the next three weeks, I did nothing other than sit in front of a teeny-tiny monitor in a darkened cutting room at ZOF and stare at film footage for eight hours a day. All the while the pressing question ran through my mind, "What is a 'good film'?" Or to be more accurate, "What differentiates a mediocre film from a high-quality product?" I burned with desire to find out what criteria were used to measure quality so that I could produce "good films" myself. You'll be stunned to hear what I discovered! There I was, legs crossed, crouched in front of the aforementioned monitor, staring and gawking until my eyes burned. After two long weeks, I timidly asked one of my co-workers how quality manifests itself. To my surprise, I 'was informed that, in a good film, text and image are so composed as to match each other precisely, i.e. text and image correspond with one another to a T! In all honesty, however, I ought to mention that this isn't necessarily a matter of course. All too often desperate television editors resort to what is called in
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the business a "tapestry." This consists of a background of meaningless, trivial images (a green meadow, for instance) that serves as a backdrop for a report on crop prices. In other words, the use of such a device implies that image and text have no immediate connection to each other. But just a second! Isn't that just a purely formal criterion? Haven't you occasionally seen films in which the text corresponds masterfully to the images and yet you find yourself bored out of your skull? So, anyway, I had to leave the question of what a good film is alone for a while. When I finally got to make my first film, I was still exceedingly anxious that the text and the images "corresponded" exactly. Shortly thereafter, however, I discovered that there were several editors who still didn't like some of my work. I finally realized that liberal journalists principally think films with a conservative slant are c_p - and vice versa. As a matter of fact, this political criterion is flogged to death in television stations. Numerous television editors try to set down what constitutes quality based on content. Some television producers consider a fundamentally conservative attitude to be "good." The liberal staff at another editorial department, on the other hand, will jealously ensure that their "liberal" background and "progressive" views are adequately represented. In this case, "liberal" means "quality." According to official guidelines, of course, all reports must maintain a certain "proportion," a nice buzzword that means providing adequate coverage to opposing political views. But, as we've seen all too often, editorial departments often hold extremely onesided political opinions. You encounter this concept of political weighting and assessment everywhere you turn. This phenomenon isn't just limited to television - radio stations, newspapers and magazines make a huge brouhaha of upholding these kind of (political) criteria. One of the underlying reasons for this is that journalists who have political leanings in one direction or the other know that the only way for them to climb up the journalistic "ladder" is to support a political party. It goes without saying that there are also individuals whose deluded consciences lead them to pass just as biased a judgment over a "good" or a "bad" report. Often, they defend their opinions even more emphatically and bitterly. This perverts the concept of quality. Political touchstones for quality are obviously worthless, even if you can't be so naive as to assume that they don't exist in reality. It doesn't take a philosopher or even particularly profound insight to realize that such criteria are for the birds. So there I was with all my newfound
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knowledge. I unearthed who was wallowing in what party so that I could be sure of not slipping up on some small, unnoticed spot. I did not want to land with my foot firmly planted in my mouth. The only problem was that I had still not answered my question, "What is a 'good film'?" Undaunted, I continued investigating, only to discover - you won't believe it! - that your local television producers themselves have no idea what "good work" is! It's incredible, but with the exception of a few formal criteria, such as: -
you must have a good speaking voice (which is why actors are usually hired on at television studios) you must cut cleanly so that a take fits seamlessly and logically with the next one (which is why you have cutters) you must have technically flawless sound (which is why you have sound engineers)
... with the exception of these formal criteria, there are no objective touchstones. Bizarre, isn't it? Granted, there are some clumsy tips and dodges, thrown together helterskelter, but that's about it. Today's television also demonstrates that the concept of quality is in a sorry state indeed. Why? They don't know any better! No one dares to judge "objectively." The legendary Nielsen ratings are not worth their salt as touchstones either, since they're only able to confirm or belie an opinion after the fact. To bring this story to its conclusion, in the course of the following four years I produced approximately 200 films for television, developing in the process my "own style," as it is so blandly called. I did not learn professionalism in the television business, however. Did you know that you can ruffle the feathers of the most experienced, the most jaded pros out there by very innocently asking them the question "What is a 'good film' or a 'good book'?" You will discover that there are no objective criteria. The authorities of yesteryear are as dead as doornails and the experts of today patently derive great pleasure from contradicting one another. What a farce! But there evidently are "good books" and "good films." So it follows that there ought to be reliable techniques and tried-and-true know-how for creating them. I can tell you this much in advance: There is know-how. There is no question whatsoever that you can define quality. And there are highly
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controversial techniques dation for a best seller.
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WORK
on how to attain quality and thus lay a sound foun-
The Importance of Tradition
While searching for high-quality works, I stumbled over venerated poets and thinkers who had pithily delineated what "quality" is and what makes a book "good." Consider the following quotation impartially without automatically getting confused by the style. "If a painter were willing to join a horse's neck to a human head and spread on multicolored feathers, with different parts of the body brought in from anywhere and everywhere, so that what starts out above as a beautiful woman ends up horribly as a black fish, could you my friends, if you had been admitted to the spectacle, hold back your laughter? In short, let the work be anything you like, but let it at least be one single thing?"
.
The author of this quotation states that a work must be one single thing. This statement is 2000 years old! The content is brilliant, even though the cramped style sometimes gets in the way of understanding it (which might be a result of the translation). This quotation is from Ars Poetica, literally, "The Art of Poetry," a small modest work by the Roman poet Quintus Horatius Flaccus, generally shortened to Horace. It was over two thousand years ago that he attempted to determine the essence of poetry, or rather, to investigate what a "good book" is. Fascinating, isn't it? Please allow me to spare you the effort of reading the entire book. Let's sum up what demands this great poet places upon the writer and the conclusions he comes to before we comment on them. In Ars Poetica, Horace comes to the following remarkable conclusions: •
Quality implies that a harmonic whole is visible and that the product is one single thing. Don't create a figure with the head of a beautiful woman and the neck of a horse, leading into the ruffled body of a bird and ending in the tail of a fish - an example of an entirely disorderly, chaotic work.
2 Horace. Ars Poetica. In Horace for Students of Literature: The "Ars Poetica" and its Tradition. Gainesville. 1995. Ed. and trans. O. B. Hardison, Jr., and Leon Golden.
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In order to create a perfect work of art, you need to have mastered the different metrical (rhythmical) forms. It's not only important to entertain your audience and the readers, but also to instruct them. Homer is without a doubt the greatest poet and, as such, should be imitated. Take the audience into consideration.
It's incredibly interesting that some of these demands are wholly legitimate, whereas others are way off in left field! In today's world, "imitating Homer" could never act as a valid yardstick of whether a book is "good" or not. This requirement is so palpably wrong that the temptation arises just to toss the entire Ars Poetica into a comer. After all, a poet who serves up advice such as this can't be really worth his salt, right? There's no question that this tip is of no use whatsoever in modem times. But let's take an unbiased look at the other criteria - if you were to analyze a sample of 100 recognized best-selling authors taken at random, you would discover that 95 of them have actually written works that are "harmonic" and "one single thing!" It's intriguing that Horace had indeed struck gold, revealing know-how that continues to be applicable. It's also advantageous to be well versed in the different metrical (rhythmic) forms. It's a well-known fact that pros can hold their own in formal terms. So this commandment issued by Horace is also correct. Whether or not you ought to instruct your audience is debatable. That you have to take your readers into account, at least to a certain extent, is no doubt right. As an author, you write for others, not for yourself. Of course there are opposing views on this point; but only because it's considered a sign of sophistication to argue over and talk the dickens out of everything. People tend to hide their failures behind the impenetrable veil of "no one understands" them. Don't ever take up that argument. There are no two ways about it. You write for others! I have personally found it to be the greatest help to have other people read a new book before it is published, or even before the editors catch a glimpse of it. That way I can test whether the reader is really engrossed in the book, whether he or she actually devours it, cover and all. Granted, I make use of special suspense techniques, which I'll discuss in more detail in the next chapter, but I still have to know whether I have implemented and applied these techniques properly. Is the reader sitting there, jaw dropped to the floor, unable to put the
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book down? If so - outstanding! One of my wife's friends told me the other day that she had just read one of my new works and that she had chased her husband out of the room when he asked her a question. She was so engrossed and absorbed in reading my book that she couldn't stop reading. I had evidently done something right. So, working with the audience is one of my priorities. I have developed a feel for literary resonance and write for others, not for myself. Believe it or not, Horace was right about this as well. The salient point is, then, to learn from the pros of past centuries and millennia. Of course, you have to differentiate. Distinguish between historically out-moded demands like "imitate Homer," dated opinions, subjective beliefs, didactic mandates such as "instruct the audience" and truly applicable, priceless know-how. How are you going to write a "good" book if you don't hang on every word the most successful writers in history have had to say on the subject? Don't be shy about learning from geniuses. If we were to rephrase Horace's commandments for modern ears, they would sound something like this: • •
Take the target group you write for into account and Make sure that you know how to ply your craft properly and have mastered as many literary techniques as possible.
This doesn't tell you how to build suspense, but it's a beginning. Let's tarry a little longer among the "ancients." We can learn a lot from them. Aristotle, the brilliant Greek philosopher, also wrote a treatise on poetics. To put it more causally, he attempted to discover what makes a work a best seller. He did not specifically investigate what makes a book "good." He pondered what makes theater and poetry "good." But it was a hunt for top-notch works, for quality. Aristotle placed a slew of demands upon the artist, of which some are, quite frankly, moronic. (Sorry, Professor!) But others are amazingly astute. His statement that poetry must imitate earlier works is moronic and jarringly wrong. It goes without saying that poetry can be freely and newly created in its entirety. Aristotle also delineated that comedy must portray the common people. Tragedy, on the other hand, was the exclusive province of the nobility. Excusez-moi, but these statements can only be understood in the context of the era in which they were written. As techniques or methods they're worthless. On the other hand, Aristotle also states that a poet should aim to stir up passions.
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He mentions emotions such as sympathy, fear, anger, terror and horror - all of which are elements that we most certainly find in modern best sellers. He already knew that you can reverse a plot (the Greeks called this "peri petie") and worked out a plethora of other highly interesting details which you can't help but admire. You'll have to pardon my casual way of making the point, but I make no secret of my personal credo in this regard. If you can't liberate yourself from so-called authorities and judge what they say for yourself, you'll be a flop as a writer. I have the utmost respect for Aristotle, even if I have to chuckle over some of his pronouncements. I could continue pumping you full of my knowledge of Aristotle and prove that I was a good little student who earned his degree in German Literature. But it wouldn't really contribute much to answering the question how do I write a best seller? Nevertheless, allow me to rummage about in the past a little longer and dig up a few more clues as to what makes a book "good." Continuing our stroll through history, we encounter (in the 3rd century) Neoptolemos of Parion, a resoundingly dull poet and theoretician whom we can immediately dismiss. The same goes for Joachim von Watt (16th century), the author of a "humanist poetry" and a humanist literary critic by the name of Scaliger, who presented a new systematic poetics in 1561 in which he proclaimed that he had found the Philosopher's Stone. Another name worth mentioning is Sir Philip Sidney, the English poet who, in 1595, wrote Defence of Poesy (quite right, "poesy" with an "sy" at the end) in which he insisted, in the grand old tradition, that true poetry should be instructive. A little further down the road, Martin Optiz tried his hand at devising a stamp of quality for poetry. In 1624, he authored The Book of German Poetry, an important milestone in the development of literary and poetical theory. Basing his conclusions on ancient Greek and Roman literary theory, as well as on Italian, French and Dutch theory, he called for the creation of a German poetics that would be equal to its foreign role models. His rules enjoyed universal acceptance for nearly a century. He counseled poets to study ancient poetry in particular and to pay special attention to mastering forms - advice no one would have any objections to. He also demanded that the language used be free of difficult words and stipulated that only trochees (i.e., a particular rhythmic foot) be used. Although he was personally awarded the laureate crown by the emperor, it is obvious that these last two requirements are
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points out, with a wagging finger, that tragedy should only portray the nobility, and so forth. Oh, well, let's forgive him his foolishness. A figure we cannot forgive, however, is Johann Cristoph Gottsched (17001766) who embodied yet another of the milestones in the series of attempts to come to formal terms with the essence of quality. However, Gottsched was a professor who should have kept his lip buttoned, because the plays he personally penned were abysmal. Nevertheless, he had to have his say, so he wrote A Critical Approach to Poetry in 1730, positioning himself as the foremost authority on poetics in the era of the Enlightenment. His dictates were so fantastically myopic in nature that they hastened the degeneration of literary tradition since Aristotle. Let's put him out of our minds and continue in our search for more experts. Noble names such as Friedrich Schiller, Bert Brecht and Friedrich Diirrenmatt adorn the list ofliterati who strove to set the forms of drama, literature and art in theoretical concrete. I don't believe that these attempts should be criticized to the extent that they represent the personal creeds of their architects; however, these efforts were at least partially aimed at formally and permanently codifying the essence of art and the essence of quality. In other words, these critics went about their work with the intention that their literary and artistic authority survive for centuries, even millennia. All of these doctrines failed to a certain extent. Despite the fact that they could have learned from these earlier, abortive efforts, theoreticians continued experimenting, particularly in Germany. One such theoretician, Wolfgang Kayser, a professor of German literature, authored a truly ponderous tome entitled The Linguistic Artifact. This virtually unreadable work brings together all manner of formal criteria with the meticulousness of a 12th century monk. Emil Staiger, another professor of German literature, modestly restricted the discussion laid out in his opulent opus The Basic Concepts of Poetry to delineating the exact parameters of lyrical, epic and dramatic verse. In doing so, he crept out onto such dangerously thin ice that he fell in with elegant regularity. Undaunted, he fought his way to his feet again and undertook further attempts to turn formal, definitive pirouettes, only to crash land again and again. His statements are idiotic, to put it mildly, and if you wish to do yourself a particular favor, you would do well to avoid reading this celebrated "great literatus." We could lie in wait for more scholarly figures and ambush them, but that wouldn't be entirely fair of us. Some ofthese opinions were upheld for as long as ten years before being forced into oblivion by a new trend that took over where the old "spirit of the age" left off. In all probability, the history of
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literary criticism, both medieval and contemporary, will continue along this path for the time being. One slick theory will replace the next and there will be few useful criteria left over. It's a shameful waste of time, but so be it. One basic guideline, however, is that all formal criteria which have been raised to the level of binding requirements must be discarded. This does not mean that a writer should refrain from learning formal techniques. Composers have to be virtuosos in handling the tools of their trade as well. Formal postulates, however, should not be generalized, nor should an ideology be tailored to suit them. It's outrageous to proclaim that only a play comprising five acts is "art" and exhibits "quality." Claims of absolute truth have become quite a rarity, since the variety of art and literature has grown to such unmanageable proportions that it's foolhardy to stand up like a prophet and proclaim "the truth." In previous eras, a "poetics" managed to hold up for several centuries before being replaced by a new theory. Thankfully, this is not possible these days. Thus, we have to struggle with an entirely different problem now - defining quality. It is simply bizarre, but there really isn't any codified material that describes the author's "profession." This is partly due to the fact that the drive to attain quality is no longer considered to be fundamental in a society with a value system that has been so muddled and befuddled. There are even some bemused minds that maintain that the drive to attain quality is pathological! If you were to try to define quality today, you would first have to underscore the fact that, looking back at centuries gone by, there are evidently numerous definitions of quality. There are innumerable conceptions of what quality is. This shouldn't tempt you to dismiss your own personal subjective definition of quality out of hand. What do [understand by this term? It's time to let the cat out of the bag.
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II. How To Expand Your Vocabulary Playfully
It's time to close these moldy books and change our style and pace. The mustiness of past millennia can cloud our comprehension of which methods to employ and how to go about the business of writing a best seller. Below I'll tell you how I went about this - possessed by the burning desire to write a top-notch book. Make the decision that you will become a best-selling author. How should you go about it? We could start a long list of criteria and all sorts of wild speculations as to what makes a book "good" and what makes a writer an artist. But all the pundits are unanimous on one thing - a professional has an extensive vocabulary and an impressive lexical arsenal at his beck and call. Notes are to the musician as words are to the pen-pusher. Words are the tools of the writing trade. So before acquainting you with the secrets of the art of creating suspense, I would like to introduce the fundamental tools of the trade to you, the relevance of which cannot be overemphasized. I hold some surprises in store for you. There are methods and approaches to learning words so quickly and rapidly that the learning is pure pleasure. "Actors are so lucky!" is a lament I've often heard from writers. An actor has recourse to gestures, mimicry and language, can modulate words, can chew on them, can growl like a bear or chirp like a cricket. In a nutshell, actors can avail themselves of methods and means that are simply out of the reach of the wordsmith or writer. Only the poor poet has as her sole tool the naked word, and it is required of her that she display as much virtuosity with this lone tool as a concert pianist does with a Steinway. There's no disputing that the word is the tool the writer relies on. Experts use this touchstone to determine whether they are dealing with a professional, someone who can juggle words easily, who can conjure up words like rabbits out of a top hat, or whether they are dealing with a pen-pusher of doubtful talent, one who is ecstatic when he, by some whim of Fortuna, happens to stumble over a wellturned phrase he can use. So cultivate your language and learn new words constantly - new words in English, as if you were trying to learn a foreign language! Thankfully, there are several outstanding methods for learning words that
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are also loads of fun. First of all, you have to understand that, without the tools of your trade, without words, you are mute. You are a bird that can't sing. With the aid of words, you can transmit ideas, thoughts and representations. Your imagination, which might potentially enable you to create heretofore-unseen galaxies from nothing, can only be of use to you to the extent that you can formulate, communicate and perform gymnastics with words. Telepathy may very well be an extraordinarily fascinating matter, but it puts the writer out of work. Her medium is language and the written word. Imagination may be the rider, but its horse is language. And the most talented jockey is helpless and useless without a horse. How can you expand your vocabulary rapidly?
1.
Grand Theft Vocabulary in Conversations
Begin by learning the art of listening and immediately absorbing words. Were you aware that Luther based his literary career on having "read the common people's lips." So can you, too, make a game out of listening closely, snapping up new words and then using them at the very next opportunity. Listen carefully for every unfamiliar word. For example, let's assume that you happen to run into your neighbor and that your conversation turns to an article in the local paper about a thief who broke into a house two streets down. Your neighbor mentions this incident and informs you that she considers the aforementioned thief to be nothing more than a common footpad and a rogue, although he fancies himself a swashbuckler. Fantastic! This is a wonderful opportunity to steal words. Your neighbor has used the words "footpad" and "swashbuckler." Perhaps you already know these words - in fact, you most probably do know them. The only thing is that you have never used these words yourself. On the sly, like a thief, you now incorporate these words into your lexical repertoire; you adopt these words as part of your vocabulary and use them immediately. Do you see? You perk up your ears and pilfer words directly from the lips of others. I promise you that your life will become more exciting and colorful than it ever has been. You will be soaking up words like a sponge and using them at the next best opportunity. Do you know how cinematographers operate? They slice their piece of
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reality out for themselves. By this I mean that they continually look through an imaginary camera lens, not seeing the world as it is, but rather as it could be portrayed on the silver screen. For example, if they take a stroll down a boulevard lined with maple trees, they see in their mind's eye a continuous flow of potential, interesting perspectives that they could capture on celluloid - instead of perceiving the trees in detail. Slice a piece of reality for yourself. Don't only pay attention to what people say, how large their ears are or the shape of their legs, but pay particular attention to which words they use. You'll make the most fascinating discoveries and will have a whole new take on language. Another discovery awaiting you is that there are numerous "languages." There are languages only spoken by senior citizens, just as there are twenty-something languages. When I was younger, it was popular to express your approval by saying, "Far out, man!" Do you know how teenagers express their approval nowadays? They say, "How sweet, my posse!" - with a straight face, of course. By all means, steal these expressions too. Don't be shy or inhibited. Learn all the languages you can, the teenage slang as well as scientific jargon. Chat like a Californian. Drawl like a Texan. Learn "hardboiled" slang, and refer to "grands" or "k's" if you mean a thousand dollar bill. Wallow in academic jargon as well. Cast off any and every arrogance you might have regarding language. Languages and words are colorful and diverse. There is an overpowering and fascinating wealth of them. Don't be afraid to use gutter slang. You're a writer, not a gradeschool teacher! Soak up words like a sponge. Perk up your ears in every conversation, snap up crisp new bits of language, digest them and use, use these words! You'll be identified as a writer once the "image" is right and you're using interesting words and unusual expressions, when your tongue has become agile enough to use them appropriately, in other words. You'll also become fantastically extroverted. So please, before you continue reading, snag yourself someone to talk to, hang on her every word, snap up a few words that you have never used before and use them in that very conversation. In so doing, you continuously add new words to your vocabulary. This method has a highly valuable added advantage of making it possible to create interesting and realistic characters, another bread-and-butter tool of the writer's trade. Nothing puts flesh and bones on characters and types as clearly and conclusively as the right vocabulary. Granted, you can mark a character by means of his peppermint aroma, an uncontrolled tic at the comer of his mouth
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or an enormous aquiline nose. But, I can't stress it enough, the most sure-fire method for building characterization is language. Characters and types exist not only in plays and novels, but also in real life. If you actively register the language and vocabulary of a single person at the source, that's half the battle, sometimes even the whole war, when it comes to putting the role of a character on paper. Do you understand? The painstaking observation of language also helps you to recognize characters and record peculiarities. It's now in your own best interest to continue learning words' systematically and regularly. Set a goal for yourself. How many words do you want to assimilate each day? Resolve to learn, for example, ten words a day.
2.
Lifting Words from Long-Selling and Best-Selling Authors
You now have access to an approach that allows you to learn new words every day, quickly, easily and effortlessly. I also practice another method, elegantly simple, but a good way to learn words equally rapidly and efficiently while pursuing my favorite hobby. Do you like to read? Every author should answer this question with a resounding "yes!" Reading books is an ideal word-gathering method. It is simple, yet entertaining and very, very effective. So, read books actively. A good way not to read books from here on out is the way most people watch TV, sucked in, hypnotized and utterly passive. As you read, you should be chasing words like a bloodhound after game - words you don't know or don't use. It's an excellent idea to underline the words that you haven't yet incorporated into your active lexical storehouse. Get a proper notebook for vocabulary. Subdivide each page into four columns and label them "Nouns, Verbs, Adjectives and Adverbs," for instance. Use this method to learn from authors systematically. You'll be astounded to discover how wide-ranging a vocabulary true professionals have. The most resourceful writers and the wittiest authors will be at your beck and call. You should constantly challenge yourself. Never forget to ask yourself as you begin each new chapter, "How many words can I filch?" You'll be stunned to realize how swiftly you can expand your vocabulary with this method. The best teachers are at your service day and night. Of course, you should not succumb to hero-worship and let these wily authors wrap you around their little fingers. Analyze and dissect them, these
23
How To EXPAND
YOUR VOCABULARY
PLAYFULLY
paragons of the literary arts. Take a good look at their internal organs, their veins, their arteries and nerve endings - in other words: their vocabulary! Without words these hallowed heroes of history would not be worth a fig. They depended upon the very tools of the trade which you must use in building your work and your reputation. You would be well advised to examine every miniscule detail of their work under a very powerful microscope. Let's consider a specific example, an excerpt from a story by Stefan Zweig, Castellio Against Calvin. Zweig was highly skilled in verbal acrobatics. Read the excerpt. I promise you that you will encounter some strange, delicate and delicious words that you have probably never used. Perform the experiment now - read actively - on the prowl for new words.
STEFAN ZWEIG, CASTELLIO AGAINST CALVIN "... one need merely glance at his countenance toforesee that this doctrine would be harsher, more morose and oppressive, than any previous exegesis of Christianity. Calvin's face resembled one of those lonely, remote, rocky landscapes in the Alps, which may wear the expression of divinity, but about which there is nothing human. Whatever makes our life fruitful, joyful, flowerlike, warm, and sensual (in the good meaning of that misused term), is lacking in this unkind, unsociable, timeless visage of the ascetic. Calvin's long, oval face is harsh and angular, gloomy and inharmonious. The forehead is narrow and severe above deep-set eyes which glimmer like hot coals; the hooked nose masterfully projects from between sunken cheeks; the thin-lipped mouth rarely smiles." 3 May I reveal to you which words I pilfered from this text? I stole the following words: • Countenance (=face) - words you don't know have to be looked up in a good dictionary. • Flowerlike • Visage • Inharmonious • Glimmer Zweig, Stefan. Cedar Paul.
J
24
The Right to Heresy: Castellio Against Calvin. New York.
1936.
Transl.
by Eden and
HA. A.
MEHLER
• Hooked • Masterfully You see that I have learned seven, count 'em, seven words. Strangely enough, I never use these words. I know them, but I don't use them. Do you see what I mean? You will strike gold using this method. A bloodless vocabulary won't tickle anyone's fancy, especially a meatless and inharmonious vocabulary, as Stefan Zweig might have put it. To continue with our demonstration of method No.2 ... You've now learned seven new words. Perhaps you knew some of them, but you've never really put them to work for you. Pick up a vocabulary notebook and set it up to look something like this:
..Adje.ctio-e.s
,Ado-ems
II\OSteAk-IJ.~~« 1k-~lI1eAW2e. il\llQA.lt\Dl\io!J.S 11lool?ed.
~
MolJ.l'S
a ~iII\II\eA
COlJ.l\te.KQI\ee. otscoe
Believe it or not, I started out doing this. I knew that one of the most recognizable hallmarks of a professional is the extent of his vocabulary. Even representatives of the noble writing guild who have amassed an impressive treasure trove of nouns, for example, are literally poor as paupers in terms of verbs. You are the one who must locate the chinks in your linguistic armor and mend them. Reach out to the words the masters offer up and grasp them with both hands. Use them in conversations with friends and acquaintances until you're positive that you have incorporated them into your active vocabulary. I assure you that you'll advance by leaps and bounds. Do you know how Jack London, the most famous author of his time, built his vocabulary?
25
How To EXPAND
YOUR VOCABULARY
PLAYFULLY
You may not believe what you read here, but this author, once the most successful writer on the planet, memorized words like a schoolboy! Irving Stone, arguably London's most definitive biographer, disclosed some of the author's most intimate working secrets. "To Jack one of the greatest things in the world was words, beautiful words, musical words, strong and sharp and incisive words. He read the heavy and learned tomes always with a dictionary at hand, wrote down words on sheets of paper and stuck the sheets into the crack between the wood and mirror of his bureau where he could memorize them while he shaved and dressed; he strung lists of them on a clothesline with clothespins so that every time he looked up or crossed the room he could see the new words and their meanings. He carried lists of them in every pocket, read them while he walked to the library... "4 How extraordinary! This man, this literary giant, studied vocabulary like a day pupil. And, in doing so, he acquired a vocabulary that can only be described as breathtaking. It stands repeating that he sought the most juicy lexical morsels and the most powerful idioms. Every line of the quotation above is worth its weight in gold for up-and-coming writers. Jack London also studied the specialized vocabularies of the characters he intended to write about. In other words, he devoted himself to an exact study of the linguistic habits of target groups, to couch it in sociological terms, and worked his magic purely on the merits of a realistic atmosphere that attracted readers who lived in the real world. So, you see, you will be in the very best of company if you go about systematically memorizing words. They are the tools of your trade. You might also ask which books you should consult to steal your words. What type of literature do I recommend reading? Giving a programmatic, schematic answer to this question does involve some risk. Nevertheless, I will venture out onto a well-worn literary limb and advise you to study everything that has earned a place on the best-seller lists of the past and present. Read everything. You'll notice that real literature is a more fertile hunting ground than pulp fiction. But while you're at it, be sure to pick up what are often referred to as "entertainment" novels with a good sales record. The authors must be doing something right, wouldn't you agree? Don't allow 4
Stone,
p 106.
26
Irving.
Jack London, Sailor on Horseback: A Biography by Irving Stone. New York.
1978.
HA. A.
MEHLER
yourself to be distracted by the envy of others who have foolishly left insufficient time in their schedules to properly pursue this delicious pastime. Read yesterday's long-sellers and today's best sellers. "World literature" belongs to this group of must-reads as well, German, French, English and Italian literature from the 16th to the 21 st century. Always read actively, never like a mesmerized couch potato. So start reading systematically and don't be discouraged by my terse recommendation to read and study several hundred books. Imagine yourself learning a paltry ten new words every day. In a year, you'll have learned 3,650 new words. In a short period of time, then, you'll be in possession of a vocabulary that exceeds that of your average Joe by leaps and bounds. The salient point here is to learn constantly and continuously, specifically, to concentrate on expanding your vocabulary. It's amazing how polished and professional you will become in terms of the basic tools of the trade, words.
3.
The Author's Weapons: Dictionaries
I can imagine that you must be trembling with anticipation about learning how to conjure up suspense. But it would be remiss of me to give short shrift to the basic tools of the trade. So be patient just a little while longer. As you will recall, Horace counseled writers to choose words insightfully. This advice is correct, although in order to be in a position to do so, you have to have words and an appropriate vocabulary at your disposal. Horace omitted this (first) step. Another way to shop for high-quality, fecund vocabulary is, of course, to consult a reputable dictionary. Even master writers are not ashamed to refer to dictionaries. I should mention that a lot of writing gurus don't know that there are such things as rhyming dictionaries, which have the potential to be extraordinarily useful when you consider the time and energy poets expend looking for a rhyme for a particular word. In truth, there's no viable reason under the sun why you should not consult dictionaries. Mindlessly worshipping the cult of imagination is a grave error. Accomplished professional writers and other artists, privately acknowledge that 95 percent of "art" is craftsmanship. Idealizing the craft of writing leads to overemphasizing concepts such as "genius" and waiting for "inspiration."
27
How To EXPAND
YOUR VOCABULARY
PLAYFULLY
This is the idle daydream of the "kiss of the Muse," who breathes a tender kiss on the nape of the writer's neck, bringing about an irresistible urge to write, like some designer creativity drug. But frankly, the only woman who ever tiptoed up behind me and surprised me with a kiss was my wife, who subsequently asked me to see to some household chore. Don't wait for a Muse to kiss you, use dictionaries! There are some excellent thesauri which are handy instant vocabulary expanders. Imagine that you're confronted with the dilemma of how to describe a "beautiful" woman. You see, "beautiful" is a depressingly bland and stale word. One look in a thesaurus reveals that, instead of "beautiful," you could say stunning, comely, statuesque, beauteous, pulchritudinous, lovely, photogenic, stately or Junoesque. There is no shortage of words; on the contrary, there appears to be an excess. Delve into this wealth. Feel free to scoop up all the words you will ever need from this lexical treasure chest! Arm yourself with "regular" dictionaries as well. Don't turn your nose up at high-school reference works. They present complex topics in an uncomplicated way, which can be a blessing to a busy writer. And, last but not least, work with picture dictionaries. Imagine that you are grappling with a scene in a story which is set in the Middle Ages. The main character is a knight whose heroic escapades take place in a castle. Where will you, the writer, turn to pilfer the necessary technical terms? From a picture dictionary, of course. A good picture dictionary will contain a topic-by-topic run-down on the surroundings in which your action takes place. You will save tons of time not having to study narrative from fifty books in order to assemble the necessary (highly specialized) vocabulary tool kit. You study the two or three picture dictionary pages on medieval castles and fifteen minutes later you're ready to roll. "Greaves clattering, the knight rides his prancing steed into the bailey. On the left he spots a draw-well and turns to face the keep on the right. He glances suspiciously up at the merlons and crenels along the palisades before snapping the visor down on his helmet and marches towards the gate of the keep, the tenebrous, mysterious edges of which are barely visible in the shadow of the corner tower." Where do you think I got these words? A good picture dictionary, of course! So work with dictionaries. If you can afford it, buy yourself an encyclopedia. Experts recommend the "Encyclopedia Britannica." Make sure that you also have several dictionaries
28
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in other languages - at the very least, German, French, Spanish and Italian since it's inevitable that the occasional Herr or Monsieur might wish to speak in your stories. Arm yourself to the teeth with dictionaries. They're the daily tools of your trade. Just as a blacksmith can't work without a hammer and an anvil, so you must have dictionaries. And then have at it!
29
III. How To Build Heart-Pounding Suspense Systematically
Finally! Finally you'll discover what suspense really is and how to build it to a fever pitch, how to grab the reader's attention and arouse his curiosity. The word "suspense" creates an automatic association with "suspenseful" happenstances. Suddenly you spot amber-yellow, glinting tiger-eyes, or treacherous villains and debauched scoundrels. It calls up images of hidden treasure, of an Edgar Wallace detective novel or Sherlock Holmes. The thought of suspense alone sends a pleasurable shiver down the spine. As I said previously, you can apply various and sundry criteria in judging the quality of a work - such as moral, didactic, political, Marxist and Christian criteria, for example. However, if a book is to be read at all, suspense must be present. The reader must be seized and drawn into the story. I have always asked myself the question, "How has the author (of the book I'm reading at the moment) managed to kindle my interest? What techniques does she use to draw me into the story? Why do I keep on reading it, anyway? Allow me to underscore the importance of asking the right question, sometimes more important than a hundred clever answers. Never again will you read a book naively and passively. In addition to being on the lookout for words like a master thief, you will also be continually asking yourself these questions: • • •
Why can't I put this book down? - Damn! Why am I glued to this story? How has the author managed to capture my attention?
Buy a small notebook, in which you'll meticulously note down why you are continuing to read right now. I predict that you'll come up with answers similar to mine, but when you make the discovery for yourself, it will be more valuable and have a more profound effect on you than if it had been worked out by others and served up to you on a silver platter. This collection of suspense techniques is also not necessarily a complete list of all the possibilities open to you. Perhaps you might uncover other ways of capturing the reader's attention
30
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and piquing his interest. And, in the final analysis, it is worth more than all the tea in China for you to train yourself, consciously, to read actively and with some distance - as a professional freebooter, so to speak. Don't forget that many momentous discoveries have been made and a host of indispensable techniques have been developed simply because someone asked the correct question! So constantly ask yourself how the author has managed to get you to keep your nose buried in her book. But now, without further delay - let's get right to it!
Technique No.1:
Attention to the Future
Let's begin by defining this mysterious word, "suspense." What is "suspense?" Well, from the author's perspective, suspense is the art of controlling the reader's attention for a specific period of time. Pardon my pointing this out to you, but I manipulated your attention as well - and not in the negative sense of the words "control" and "manipulation." I was particularly careful to hint that something special, something extraordinary was in store for you after the chapter, "Words - the Author's Tool." By doing this, I drew your attention firmly to the future. So always draw your reader's attention to future occurrences. If you have drawn up a suspenseful, surprise-packed ending, and allowed a hint of it to be visible between the lines, the reader will have to read the book to the very end. The same thing is true for the middle of a book. You can (cautiously) drop little hints so that the reader's attention remains stuck in the future. Any and everything that serves to project the reader's attention into the future is a solid method of generating suspense. By "future," I mean, of course, the future of the work, the novel, the non-fiction book, etc. There really are 101 opportunities to use this method. Insinuations such as: •
"Had F. sensed what was awaiting her at the meeting, she would not have remained so snugly seated in her armchair." Or "But the situation would not remain calm for long." Or "The mere thought of the next day caused me to sweat blood."
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How To BUILD
HEART-POUNDING
SUSPENSE SYSTEMATICALLY
Draw the reader's attention to the future.
In principle, you can always give your reader an appetizer that leaves him hungry for more. Give him a teaser. Tickle his imagination. Interestingly enough, your reader's imagination is your working capital. This is a technique you can use for non-fiction as well as for novels, stories, and screenplays. It's unbeatable as a method, but it must be applied judiciously. If you lay it on too thick, your readers and viewers will spot you coming a mile away. You can also draw your reader's attention to the future in expectation of the unfolding of several "topics," wrapping him up like a writhing fly in several threads of the spider's web. Or you could repeatedly bring one topic that you've kept simmering on the back burner to a boil by vaguely hinting at it now and again.
Technique No.2:
Two Ideas
The starting point for a novel, or any other work of literature, is always an idea. The idea can also be a trap for the writer. My advice is this: Don't just fall in love with one idea, no matter how brilliant it might be. The idea, the realization, the flash of inspiration is solely the beginning of a work. To write a book, you have to start with two ideas at a minimum. Start out writing your book with the initial idea and the conclusion in mind! Construct a beginning and a finale. Generally speaking, the finale is the writer's starting point. As the author,
32
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you roll the story out from the conclusion to the introduction. So that makes it a superb idea to have the twist, the climax at the ready before you've even written the first line. You have to compose the story towards the climax. Suspense practically develops on its own if the work is developed in this way. ever start writing a book until you have visualized how it will end. This is a good point to bring up an intriguing empirical point. Do you know anyone who has been toying with the idea of writing a book, but never carries it out? I can tell you where his Achilles' heel is; this "writer" has never visualized an ending for his book. He has fallen head over heels in love with a (possibly enchanting and beguiling) idea, but has yet to strategize a plan of attack. He's got to get down to the business of delineating how the plot, which begins so auspiciously, will develop and, above all, how it will end. In other words, he didn't begin with two ideas. After some time has passed, the book bogs down. The words flow less freely and the drive to continue flags exponentially until one day the stream of ideas runs totally dry. The reason? The author didn't start with two ideas which would have made suspense a fait accompli by forcing the plot to shift back and forth between two opposite poles. This, by the way, is a "subjective suspense technique," or a "creativity technique," which we were actually planning to save for the climax and denouement. But we need to trot it out in order to introduce Technique No.3, as you'll soon see. For the record, even seasoned writers have been caught in the trap of beginning a book with only one idea. They didn't conceptualize the ending before beginning the book. So, as they approached the climax, they were forced to dish up a paper-thin, contrived and decidedly unthrilling solution. Always start with a minimum of two ideas when you set about the task of writing a book.
Technique No.3: The Surprise The climax and the finale have to contain an element of surprise. As the author, it is your responsibility to ensure that the peak, the devious twist you create, is ten times more interesting than the reader could possibly have imagined. If it isn't, she may as well have written the book herself. Climaxes, and above all, endings must be unexpected for that very reason. It is imperative that they exceed the expectations of the reader.
33
How To BUILD
HEART-POUNDING
SUSPENSE SYSTEMATICALLY
Technique No.3, the surprise, explains why writers are so fervent about collecting anecdotes about bizarre deaths - just as someone else might collect stamps. A death, be it murder or suicide, is always something startling. As an author, however, it is your job to be ready to snap up and unload a surprise. This little technique also solves the conundrum of why "the murderer is always the gardener" and never the shady slouching scoundrel with his hat pulled down over his face. The reader always thinks he knows how the book will end - but the ending is totally different than what he had expected. This is Technique No. 3 in a nutshell. If you apply Technique No.2 (starting out with two ideas), don't forget to include Technique No. 3 right out of the box. Construct an unexpected, startling conclusion. At this point, I would like you to recall some books you've read. How did that element of surprise manifest itself in the finale? When examining "classic" authors, such as Johann Wolfgang von Goethe, we discover that even they wouldn't turn up their noses at using this surprise technique. In the best seller that established Goethe as a household name in his native country, The Sorrows of Young Werther, the lover astonishingly commits suicide at the end of the book. You could also cite Agatha Christie as an example. For instance, her marvelously well written mystery Philomel Cottage is book about a woman who gradually comes to the realization that she has married a con artist who kills his wives after a certain period of time. The story approaches its climax; the woman intuits that the same fate awaits her as her predecessors. The suspense builds up to a fever pitch when her husband is, in fact, actually about to kill her. At the very last moment, a brilliant idea occurs to the woman. She leads her husband to believe that she too is a murderer and that she has just stirred poison into his coffee. Her husband, the murderer, is so aghast that he falls over dead then and there before her very eyes. This is a genuinely surprising twist. In fact, the surprise is the candy that you use as bait to keep the reader glued to the page. After all, he wants to know how it will all end, or how a perplexing problem will be solved. Conversely, you could probably easily cite several examples from memory of cases where Technique No.2 was violated and the reader's expectations were disappointed. Bad mystery shows or movies, without a surprising surprise at the end always leave a flat taste in your mouth. We have all had the experience of watching a show to the bitter end because we hope and pray that we will be rewarded, or, rather, surprised.
34
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There is much more know-how in the field of surprise - but we won't expound on it at this juncture so that we don't pile on too much at once. In the chapter titled "Suspense Techniques - the Next Level," you'll find the answer to the question of how to create surprises. It will take your breath away!
Technique No.4: The Mystery Another way to write astoundingly gripping books is to introduce a mystery. The unknown draws attention to itself as if by magic. The mystery novel genre owes its existence primarily to this technique. If you allude to a mystery at the beginning of a book, the reader has to stick it out until the end, otherwise, she'll never find out "the truth." Once you've introduced a mystery, though, the explanation of the mystery has to exceed the reader's expectations, or she'll be disappointed (cf. Technique No.3). But back to the mystery. If I don't know where the doubloons are hidden, what is written in the cryptic letter on the pale-blue stationery, who the cutthroat is, when the dynamite is set to explode, what lies hidden in the small black box and whether the double agent is also acting as a scout for the Russians, I have to read on. I have no other choice in the matter. It is a fantastic technique, possibly la creme de la creme of all suspense techniques. Often, a novel is made up of nothing more than a step-by-step disclosure of a mystery. The reader has no option but to remain faithful to you, since he would otherwise remain hung up on this puzzle forever. This technique also explains why you continue watching humdrum movies until the bitter end. You want to find out what the mystery was that was introduced so tantalizingly at the beginning. Damn! You can employ the mystery technique in different ways. • Let's assume that an enigma was introduced at the beginning of a book. But, at some point, you have to let the. cat out of the bag. You can go to the next level, by which I mean that you can introduce a new mystery before the first one has been solved, so that the reader remains glued to the text. In other words, before solving an old mystery, integrate at least one new one into the text. This ensures that the reader is inexorably drawn into the sequence of events in the plot and has to continue reading.
35
How
To BUILD
•
HEART-POUNDING
SUSPENSE SYSTEMATICALLY
Another possibility entails confronting the reader with one mystery. Shortly thereafter, you introduce a second mystery, so that the reader is doubly "tied" to the story. This implies that you don't solve mystery No.1. Finally, you can cause the "suspense battery" to be "recharged" by regularly bringing up a single mystery over and over again.
•
'-~~-: Mystery mentioned repeatedly
---
= •
Mystery
I I
•
--0-,,
-- ---" , " I I
....
,
I I
- --
---
I I
Mystery solved
III.... r-~~~~----------------~r The course of the plot
Introduction
•
36
Conclusion
A mystery can be introduced in manifold ways. If the hero doesn't know where he is or where he's being led, we're facing a mystery of place. If the heroine doesn't know who her friends (or enemies) are, we're facing a mystery of person. And if you have absolutely no clue who the enemy is and where he'll strike next, you can feel the tension heighten to intolerable levels. One example of the use of this technique can be seen in the movie "The Eiger Sanction" with Clint Eastwood. The screenwriter deliberately keeps the viewer in the dark as to the enemy's identity. Every encounter is fraught with peril. There are mysteries of time (what century has the time machine carried me to?), of reason (why did he do/say/etc. that?), of objects (why is this mysterious letter, box, etc. so important?) in addition to probably twenty other "mystery types." Another popular type is the mystery, "what kind of danger is this?" (Not identifiable.)
HA. A.
MEHLER
By professionally applying this technique, you will be able to draw a net of heart-poundihg suspense around the reader. Mysteriousness is a magnetic quality and a powerful draw.
Technique No.5: The Goal If the hero stubbornly and fanatically pursues a goal, suspense is also guaranteed. This technique glues the reader to the plot, since he burns to know whether the hero can solve the problem and whether he will reach his goal. This draws the reader's attention to the future. There are different examples of goals. Often, the hero is chasing a girl. Or it's a matter of money, of lots of money! "Chasing a girl" (as a goal), by the way, has nothing to do with sex. Explicitly describing sex is, in fact, a grave mistake. The hope of sex, the hope of love is what fascinates the reader, just as the hope of money. Money can be represented by gold, silver, jewels, jewelry, coins, bills, treasures, houses, land, precious objects, a lucrative marriage and a vast number of other circumstances. The suspense is created by the two poles - will the hero acquire the money - or won't he? Will he get the girl - or won't he? The hero can also be searching for insight - as is the case with the protagonist in Hermann Hesse's best seller Siddhartha, who searches for wisdom and universal knowledge. The reader is anxious, trembling every bit as much as the protagonist, hoping that Siddhartha will reach his goal and that he will finally attain insight. So the actual method consists of setting a goal. An intelligent author will always formulate goals that the society in which he lives considers to be realistic, worthy of attaining and with which it can identify. A goal can also consist of bringing a gangster to justice, a negative goal, if you will. There are numerous goals, possibly as many goals as there are human beings. Of course, there are also destructive goals, but even if the heroine sets a goal for herself of cracking a particularly secure safe, the audience will be just as anxious, will tremble just as much as she, hoping that she will reach it. Often, a goal comprises several goals. If reaching the "overgoal," as you might call it, entails getting the girl, avenging a wrong and money - this means that you, the author, are appealing to three goals that are most certainly
37
How
To BUILD HEART-POUNDING
SUSPENSE SYSTEMATICALLY
comprehensible to everyone. Your reading audience has just grown immensely. Frequently, the author works with "subgoals" that are only part of the "overgoal," of the true, the big goal. In other words, while working towards the goal, the hero faces several problems that he has to solve first. It's very interesting to analyze what happens with the reader in such instances - not only is he bound by the "subgoal" (the problem) but also keeps the actual, the original goal, the overgoal in the "back of his mind." You have just captured his attention twice and have effectively bound him to the plot with double manacles. Using goals as a suspense technique is an astoundingly powerful method - probably because it reflects life itself.
Technique No.6:
The Unusual
Anything unusual and incongruent immediately attracts our attention. So be on the lookout for people, events, objects, subjects and elements that stand out (from the everyday). You may laugh at the simplicity of this example, but if a seven-foot man crosses the street, everyone turns around. The same thing happens if the man is only four feet tall. Why? Because this person stands out from the usual, the average, the everyday. This is true of special skills, or atypical architecture or an extraordinary luxury automobile. Interestingly enough, the super rich are just as fascinating as the destitute. I guarantee that if you could get a hump-back whale to cross the aforementioned street, you would be able to collect a dollar from every onlooker for the privilege of standing there and gawking. This technique works fabulously. As a matter of fact, it is often an unusual idea or event that initially inspires an author to write a work in the first place. Strange events, as I said earlier, are to be assigned to this category, as are special skills. When Frank Herbert, the world-famous science fiction author, sets up a duel in his book Dune, (later adapted for the screen) in which a blind man battles against a sighted foe, he is presenting us with an unusual situation. The situation is made even more unusual by the skill the blind man possesses. He is able to perceive his opponent's movements with the aid of his senses of smell and hearing. He hurls his dagger directly into his opponent's eye, after having detected the location of the target by way of his listening skills. This amalgamation of exceptional abilities excites us because it creates suspense. For the same reason, the idea of a man "helping out" at a wedding ceremony
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only because he happens to have the same name as the bridegroom is remarkable. This means that another man marries the bride! Readers love unusual skills in particular. The exhibition of skills such as short-circuiting the wiring via telekinesis or communicating with the spirits of the dead, is exciting. So have your animals talk, your parrots cry and your human characters fly. You have to be willing to leave the path of the everyday and the normal, but this method of imagining unusual circumstances alone produces suspense and rivets the reader's attention. With this in mind, read the following introduction to a story:
Fastidiously scrutinizing his every movement, I observed the runner sprinting in front of me. I carefully studied every hand movement made by the man, who was evidently competing against a much tougher, more muscular opponent. I examined the way he kept his fingers curled, as though he wished to strangle someone, the way he kept his nose at a slant to the wind and the way his right shoulder hung slightly lower than the left one and was sloping at an angle of about 10 degrees to his spine. I watched him place one foot in front of the other, all the while panting and sweating, like a marionette on strings - and expected him to collapse any moment. However, his iron ambition pushed him on, even though the sweat was streaming down his face. He was fighting his opponent bitterly, evidently prepared to fall over dead before admitting defeat. I saw him, his lips pressed together in a thin white line, larger than life before me. I knew that the correct, the decisive moment had arrived - it was time for me to act, immediately, at that very moment! I swiftly activated the psych-o-mat, propelling a razor-sharp will-stream directly into the device, which captured my thoughts and immediately amplified them a thousand-fold, blowing up my will into an explosive wave of energy. I directed the device toward the runner and thrust my amplified will into his skull. At that moment, he was struck as if by a cannon and was catapulted out of his body. I saw his soul, his self, spurt out of his skull and sensed the runner's shock at feeling what he must have perceived to be his skull and bones exploding in all directions. While his soul sprinted away into the cobalt-blue sky, never to be seen again, I saw the body falter and tremble for a moment, like a flag in the wind. I saw its pupils dilate and its mouth widen to scream out, a scream that was never uttered.
39
How
To BUILD
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In the very same moment that the spirit of the runner was shot out of his body, I propelled myself into his body at the speed of light, into the spiritless hull of this man. I thrust my self into the head of this body and muffled the scream of extreme terror its mouth was about.to utter at the very last moment. Without hesitating for more than an instant or two, I took control of the entire organism, bringing the motor system and the autonomic nervous system under my command. I continued running next to my muscle-bound opponent as though nothing had happened. Although that ox appeared to be as sensitive as a brick, he must have felt some echo of the soul exchange for a second or two. The air shimmered with heat, sending out invisible waves - yet my opponent merely turned his angular face and gave me a silent, panting look. The drive to win this competition at any price had the upper hand in him. I dashed on, gradually calming the vessels of my heart and the nervous system in order to force all my energy into my muscles, tendons and my vibrating solar plexus. As soon as I was able to regulate my stride, I stole a moment to take a close look at my new body. I was perched in a strange head and could hear the blood pulsing in my temples. I felt its bones and skull from within and crept around in the brain's gray matter, admiring how the billions of nerve cells gathered there had been arranged to form the cerebrum and the medulla oblongata. I felt deep admiration for the artist who had sculpted and engineered this unbelievably complex work of architecture while I strolled about in the pons and the cerebellum and poked at the meninges with my spirit "finger." This ruse I was perpetrating was anything but moral or noble. It had the added effect, however, of obliterating my original memory. While I numbly sprinted alongside my bulky companion, I reflected upon whether the loss was worth gaining the body and the excitement promised by a new adventure. For an instant, I felt miserable and trapped. I tried distracting myself by focusing all of my attention on the movements of my muscles. I listened to the inaudible, but still painful sound of my tortured calf muscles and felt the crushing power of my thighs. When my running companion finally began to pant and struggle for breath, I glanced at him and noticed him looking suspiciously at me from the corner of his eye and sniffing the wind like a bulldog. I immediately
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affected my predecessor's gait, curving my hands and forcing my right shoulder to slope at a slight angle to my spine. My pace remained the same, however, putting me in front of my rival, who continued trotting along, a dazed look on his face. Soon he began violently heaving for breath, his face turning lobster-red. At that point, I gathered all my strength and sprinted off, leaving him in the dust. I pressed my lips together and injected all my strength into this body so that I could stay ahead of him, keeping several hundred yards between him and myself. He finally gave up and dragged himself over to me, gawking like a circus monkey. He pounded me on the shoulder, complimenting me to disguise his smoldering anger and admitting his defeat with a strained smile. I can barely recall what happened next, because my mind was painfully preoccupied with the fact that I was suddenly stuck in a strange body, deprived of my memories ... 5
I think we can stop there. The excitement generated by the idea that a body can be "run" by another person, that it is possible to catapult a soul from a body and then take over the shell, moved the author to write this short story. It also grabs the attention of the reader. From these examples you come quickly to the realization that an author's enemy is the usual, the normal and the mundane. Writers uphold a worldview that can be reduced to the common denominator of embracing the extraordinary. They shun boredom, mediocrity, and bourgeois reality just as the devil shuns holy water. Based on this observation, we could claim that all writers and would-be authors must strive to live an exciting, adventurous life, and we probably wouldn't be too far off the mark. But let's stick to the objective techniques first. It's of utmost importance that you populate your stories with the high and the mighty, the down-and-out and everyone in between. The blockbuster novel after 1949, Wallraff's multi-million best seller, The Lowest of the Low, is another prime example of this philosophy. It vividly portrays the lives of characters who occupy the lowest levels of society. The impoverished are just as fascinating as the super-rich. There's only one thing you cannot Mehler, Ha. 315 ff.
S
A.
"Kosrnische
Mission."
In Science Fiction Story Reader No.
20. Munich.
1983.
p.
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afford as an author - normalcy.
Technique No.7:
Violating Conventions
Related to the concept of focusing on the extraordinary, there exists another technique that good authors endeavor to employ, consciously or unconsciously. They build up suspense by violating conventions, laws and rules. If a burglar picks a lock, breaks into a building and steals something, this is illegal. Illegal acts, or acts that clearly violate any sort of rules, create suspense. You can use this technique to create momentary tension as well as a sweeping suspense curve. The television series "The Fugitive" owed its existence to the fact that the fleeing Dr. Kimble, innocent though he was, was forced to live outside the law and in constant terror of being discovered. Breaking and entering, bomb attacks, assassination, theft, murder, adultery, The entire penal code offers up a plethora of examples of breaking rules. But there are also unwritten conventions in society, just as there are cultural realities and technical and physical truths. By breaking these rules, the author creates suspense. Suspense hangs between the two poles allowed - not allowed or that's the way it is - that's not the way it is. By operating, acting and moving outside of the usual norms, a character creates suspense or perhaps sympathy and identification, as is the case when the reader would not consider the violated norms, rules and laws to be moral or just. The laws of physics are defied in fairy tales which is why children love them so much. Less solid realities are those that affect a few smaller regulations such as "You are not permitted to cross the street if the light is red." Invent a society in which stop is indicated by a green light and you could write the most splendid story, particularly so if you set this society on a collision course with ours.
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So this is a fabulous success formula that is very useful for the fairy tale and science fiction genres. Simply reject what is considered to be "law."
Technique No.8:
The Hero
Idols capture readers' attention, heroes and heroines. The reader identifies with the protagonist. He lives, suffers and wins with "his" hero. A stunning appearance, a razor-sharp mind and impressive mountains of muscle often mark the protagonist. Recall Perry Rhoda, the science fiction superstar. Billions of people know the character of Perry Rhoda .. Sherlock Holmes, Captain Ahab, Jack Ryan, the Count of Monte Crisco - virtually every successful book and movie sell a superhero to the reader or viewer. Some might look down their nose in literary arrogance at this fact, but a fact's a fact and this is an indisputable recipe for success. I would like to note something in passing here. Professionals don't give a hoot about muckrakers who might write uncomplimentary articles about them. The only thing of import to the professional novelist is whether the books sell. Do you, the author, want to satisfy the critics or your readers? The most adroit, well-educated writers such as Goethe, Leasing, Edgar Allan Poe and Mark Twain availed themselves of this technique. If you conjure up a lackluster hero, the readers won't exactly be beating your door down in excitement - after all, who would want to identify with him? Beware, however, your hero's got to do more than lug around chunks of muscle. A realistic hero might feel fear. But he would know how to overcome his fear, to be courageous in his fear. Or, he might be a modest person despite his bravery, thereby winning the hearts of readers. Admittedly, heroes and heroines are almost always idealized and idolized. A writer is at liberty to conjure ideal circumstances into existence out of thin air. If you're able to render even one character realistically and honestly, admirably and affectionately, the reader will hang on your every letter. She won't be satisfied with merely reading the book, she'll gobble it up, cover, pages and all. With this in mind, analyze the following excerpt:
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SIDDHARTHA by HERMANN HESSE, AN EXCERPT "In the shade of the house, in the sunshine on the river bank by the boats, in the shade of the sallow wood and the fig tree, Siddhartha, the handsome Brahmin's son, grew up with his friend Govinda. The sun browned his slender shoulders on the river bank, while bathing at the holy ablutions, at the holy sacrifices. Shadows passed across his eyes in the mango grove during play, while his mother sang, during his father's teachings, when with the learned men. Siddhartha had already long taken part in the learned men's conversations, had engaged in debate with Govinda and had practiced the art of contemplation and meditation with him. Already he knew how to pronounce Om silently ... " 6 We don't need to carry out an in-depth analysis in this case. The hero is what fascinates the reader in this excerpt. Siddhartha has been translated into 40 languages and is a paradigm of a multi-million best seller and a long-seller. Let's consider an important question, How do you create a hero? How do you characterize "types?" First, we have to recognize that courage is always fascinating because we all want to be courageous. The characteristic "courage" is closely related to the phenomenon of the hero. The same thing is true for the characteristic ethics. Extreme respectability is also a reliable source of fascination. Sociological studies have proven that ethics continues to be placed quite high up on the human values scale, even in the decadent 2151 century. If a heroine behaves "courageously" and "ethically," the reader will identify with her, because (at least in literature) she can somehow afford the luxury of risking her life to bring about a better world. A cunning and intelligent heroine also arouses enthusiasm. If a particularly ingenious plan is presented in the introduction of a book, the reader is drawn into the book by the question of whether the plan will be carried out successfully or not. The mere fact that the plan reveals cunning and intelligence is gripping to the reader. It is the product of extraordinary skills, a positive characteristic that furthers the identification of the reader with the heroine. You, the author, are also obliged to "build up" the hero. There is a stepladder or scale approach. For example, you can contrast your hero with another, less 6
Hesse, Hermann.
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Siddhartha.
New York.
1957.
Trans.
By Hilda Rosner.
p.
5.
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appealing, character. The reader will develop an affinity for the hero. As the plot unfolds, the hero becomes increasingly (physically and mentally) attractive. Build your hero up step by step without resorting to wild, extreme exaggerations. By using the plot, actions and reactions, you can develop the character even further. Finally, the reader's desire that the hero triumph becomes overwhelming. The suspense becomes unbearable. This technique simply entails building up a hero step by step.
Technique No.9:
Hating the Villain
The villain is at least as important, if not more important, than the hero. fter all, the hero needs something to do. In fact, numerous professional actors frankly admit that the role of the villain is often more gratifying than the role of the hero or the heroine. Be that as it may, it's evident that the villain, the anti-hero is the object of perennial fascination. Many television series literally owe their existence to their villains. Just think of J.R. Ewing from the show "Dallas," or of the Collins from "The Denver Clan." Think of nefarious comic book figures or figures from high literature. Think of Star Wars and the Dark Side of the Force. Occasionally we'll find a more villainous and more powerful scoundrel lurking behind the villain, just as an adviser may be supporting the protagonist. It is necessary to outfit your villain with unmistakable characteristics, just as with the hero. You must make him an identifiable type, a statement. But how do you create an identifiable type? A realistic character? Well, first and foremost, aside from special skills, characters have got to possess strong, well-defined intentions. The true intent is essential - not the superficial intent that may be only her camouflage or cover. Thoughts define a character just as effectively as dialog or idiosyncrasies of speech. Your character may have innumerable linguistic peculiarities, perhaps she stutters, perhaps she repeats every sentence twice. She could develop a penchant for particular idioms, could speak with a French accent, could lisp or do any of a thousand things. Once this has been established, you can introduce her gestures, her body language, her appearance and her clothing, even special weapons and equipment. Any or all of these things characterize and distinguish the
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individuals and types in your work so that they are identifiable for the reader. In fact, you could set out to develop nothing less than a small science of how to develop characters. Every writer has his or her own formula in this regard, but the tips listed above surely point in the right direction. Now it's essential to portray the villain as being as dishonest, mean and perhaps as downright sadistic as possible. How do you manage to do that? The technique of truly filling out a character is based on exaggeration. That's why characters such as Superman, the Terminator, Sherlock Holmes, Tarzan, etc. exist. All of these characters are incomprehensibly (read: exaggeratedly) intelligent, strong or skilled. The anti-hero, for his part, has to be very repulsive. For example, if he delights in feasting on human beings, he ought to be described in all the sadistic and perverse lust he feels when he indulges in this depraved pleasure. Depict him tearing a bite out of a freshly killed three-year-old child's well-rounded thigh, oozing delicious blood as he raises it to his mouth . . ,' "', Do you follow? 1 Portray your characters richly and vividly, not weakly and thinly. The more the reader hates the villain, the more the "suspense battery" charges up. The cowboy in the black hat has to be truly vile, abhorrent, perfidious and evil so that the reader wishes for his downfall with all her heart. The more wicked the character, the more fervently the reader wants to see the villain hang, and from the highest branch possible! Since the reader's emotion is your working capital, you can prove you're worth your pay by fulfilling your duty to conjure up the most debauched "bad guys" imaginable. The mere fact that the majority of readers want to see the villain take a fall guarantees you an audience - as long as the villain is a true monster, a real bastard.
Technique No. 10: Danger Here's another suspense technique. Danger in general and life-threatening peril in particular are also real attention-grabbers. By and large, the very survival of the hero or the protagonist is threatened. To die or not to die, that is the question!
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Because the reader/viewer identifies with the characters, he'll feel the danger breathing down his own neck and will want to flee from it. In a way, then, he's fighting for his own survival. And, if confronted with the gaping maw of a lion, who wouldn't do anything to get away from the beast? Well, for the reader "doing anything" can mean only one thing - reading on! And at that point, you, the author, have won. When we say danger, don't always let your thoughts rest on the leopard that has just sprung up to tear out your hero's throat. The fact alone that you can get further and further in debt can also be dangerous. The $64,000 question in that case is, "How in the world will the heroine stave off bankruptcy?" The danger technique is frequently linked to the mystery technique. By ensuring that the reader doesn't know what the danger is, where it comes from, when it will appear, who embodies it, how it will reveal itself, etc., you've successfully combined the "mystery" and "danger" techniques. Using two suspense techniques simultaneously is the Next Level.
Technique No. 11: Action Breathe a little action into your stories. Standing alone, this is a primitive technique, but when used in conjunction with other techniques it's unbeatable. Action can also take place in a character's mind and can imply unforeseen events. The anatomy of action is lots of motion in very little time. Frequently, action is associated with a lack of time. In many cases, the heroine experiences action only subjectively. Let's look at an excerpt from Edgar Allan Poe's Narrative of A. Gordon Pym. Here's the situation: Several people have been trapped on a ship for a number of months. The food has run out and they are growing hungry. Driven to desperation, they resolve to select one of their number at random to be killed and eaten by the others. (Suspense technique: the unusual plus danger.) The unlucky soul who draws the shortest splinter will have to say his farewell prayers. Read on.
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THE NARRATIVE OF A. GORDON PYM BY EDGAR ALLAN POE, AN EXCERPT ... At length delay was no longer possible, and, with a heart almost bursting from my bosom, I advanced to the region of the forecastle, where my companions were awaiting me. I held out my hand with the splinters, and Peters immediately drew. He was free - his, at least, was not the shortest; and there was now another chance against my escape. I summoned up all my strength, and passed the lots to Augustus. He also drew immediately, and he also was free; and now, whether I should live or die, the chances were no more than precisely even. At this moment all the fierceness of the tiger possessed my bosom, and I felt toward my poor fellow-creature, Parker, the most intense, the most diabolical hatred. But the feeling did not last; and, at length, with a convulsive shudder and closed eyes, I held out the two remaining splinters toward him." 7 As previously mentioned, this situation includes the danger technique. But in this case, the action takes place in subjective time. The danger technique is almost inevitably wedded to the action technique. When professionals go about heightening the suspense to a fever pitch, they endeavor to introduce several dangers at the same time. For instance, not only is the hero being pursued by the villain, but during the pursuit a saber-toothed tiger springs out of the undergrowth on the right, just as the arrow shot by a second pursuer zings past the hero's ear. Gasping for breath, our hero stops beneath a sheltering tree that partially conceals the cobra slithering down towards him. Okay? Several simultaneous dangers may be the key to the action technique. The desire to play down action's importance as a technique has its origin in the primitive and clumsy use of the method. The endless high-speed pursuits common to detective movies have lowered the technique's repute. Nevertheless, when judiciously applied by the professional, it still packs enough punch to launch the reader into a very high orbit.
7
Poe, Edgar Allan. The Complete Tales and Poems of Edgar Allan Poe. New York. 1975. p. 819.
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Technique No. 12: Opposites Attract Suspense is .also created by the relationship of pole to antipole. It's coneivable that this might take the form of two opposite opinions, say between twO friends. This demonstrates why the dialog can be used as an instrument to create suspense. A pole automatically creates an anti pole. The process mirrors the physical phenomenon. You may be surprised how often this technique is applied. The battle of good against evil, the basic motif of all major works of literature as well as of pulp or commercial literature, is based on this principle. Faust versus Mephisto, Mickey Mouse versus Goofy - everyone, but everyone uses this technique (and I hope you were amused by my mentioning Mickey Mouse and Faust in the same sentence). This vital concept, pole - antipole, could easily be the subject of an entire book, connecting the introduction to the development of the plot all the way through to its conclusion. However, this technique could be also applied to certain episodes or segments of the book. There are innumerable ways of employing this method. You can't overestimate the importance of this principle. The pole - antipole technique is increasingly being used in non-fiction best ellers. The superbly written seller on the multinational corporation McDonald's draws most of its suspense from the controversy surrounding the founder and the president of the company. The incomparable non-fiction work, a worldwide best seller, Iacocca: An Autobiography derives its interest to a large extent from the controversy between Henry Ford II, a controlling shareholder of the Ford Motor Company, and Iacocca himself. In fact, the structure of these nonfiction works bears a very strong resemblance to the structure of novels.
Technique No. 13: Reality Good authors are praised time and time again for producing works that seem "realistic." Note - seem, not are! So you could quite innocently ask the question "H,?w do I attain this realism?" "Reality" is attained by inserting copious "sensual" details, such as describing the smell of a particular person, place, or thing. All the senses lend themselves to this sort of description. Depicting sensory impressions precisely is one way of snaring the reader's
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attention. Because of it, an entire world or cosmos will "coalesce" and become "real." "Randomly" occurring thoughts also contribute to the realistic touch of a work of literature. The writer can describe the objective surroundings on the one hand while revealing a character's subjective thoughts on the other. This generates a sense of "reality" that generates tension between the poles of objectivity and subjectivity. Repetitions can also act to create "reality." Returning to a description of the hero's high-tech weaponry again and again - or depicting the other characters' reaction to the anti-hero's pungent stench are examples. Many top authors create "reality" by researching details very precisely, be they scientific or of a cultural nature. In the novels of many best-selling authors, the places, airports, departure times and train schedules are a perfect reflection of the real world. So there are innumerable methods of creating "realism" even though the novel, absurdly enough, is the product of pure invention and imagination - the exact opposite of reality! Be that as it may, the reader wants to be persuaded. She wants to be drawn into a new "world," that is, another reality. The better you, the author, are able to create an illusion, a new reality, the more convincing and successful you will be. That's the reason writers research the vocabulary of character types as accurately as possible. They want to be able to write realistically. Having said that, there's no need to go into a bordello to research the jargon of whores. It's an excellent idea, however, to move in different circles and to study potential character types. Traveling is also a typical pastime of authors - traveling introduces you to new "realities" that can be stylized, processed and reproduced with a new twist. What the critic calls a cliche (a mean word) is a reality that has been portrayed awkwardly and incompetently. I could add another ten pages on how to acquaint yourself with new realities. A mere conversation can provide abundant opportunities to do so, as can observation. But let's save the creativity techniques for later. It's worth noting that artists are able to conjure up new realities out of thin air and make these new worlds into true realities. Cast your gaze over to Disneyland in California. This amusement park was once just a glimmer in Walt Disney's eye, thin, invisible and intangible. But, just as sure as you see the words upon this page, his idea was transformed into the Disney parks and is as real as "real" can be. In fact, authors make new realities, which is to say they create. You don't
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need to limit this to science fiction authors, many of whose "wacky" ideas, by the way, have been actualized by engineers. You could write a doctoral dissertation on the subject of "reality." For our purposes, however, it suffices to stress that good authors are able to create realities, new realities, and are also capable of describing them realistically. This is one of the skills a write must possess. The good news is that you can learn this skill and practice it.
Technique No. 14: Passion You're about to plunge into one of the "hottest" sections of this book. If what you genuinely want is to generate suspense, attention and interest, you have to be a master of portraying what Aristotle called the "passions." Accomplishing this will guarantee you success so permanent that the only way to escape it will be to commit suicide. You'll notice it everywhere you look, the plays, novels and films that touch our hearts most deeply, that enjoy the greatest acclaim, are laced with passion. Even though you might be proficient in every suspense technique under the sun, if you can't conjure up passion, you're lacking 90 percent of your craft. Or, to put it another way, passion is what gives a story its pizzazz. In response to my questions, "Why am I reading on at all? Why do I feel drawn into and glued to the story? Why can't I put this book down?" - one answer kept coming back with exquisite regularity. It was the passion that captivated me. Passion captivates readers more effectively than you might imagine. There are any number of opportunities to work it in. First and foremost, you can use passion to characterize a person. If you competently and consistently portray a character as acting and reacting in, let us say, a terrified manner, you've created a type. You can even use this method to typify incidental characters. There's no denying that passion lures the reader into a story, particularly if it includes all the physiological details and the accompanying glandular secretions have been recounted in loving detail, to cite one popular example. You can use passion to construct suspense curves, or to stir up suspense and interest at isolated points. Study how passion is employed in literature or cinema from the standpoint of a professional.
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Technique No. 15: Humor Humor and comedy also arouse interest. If you write a truly hilarious text, you've got the reader in your front pocket. But how do you cook up humor? Is it an inherent characteristic, a kind of talent? Maybe, but if we look at it from the standpoint that you can make best sellers, then we ought to be able to tackle the subject of humor too. Of the vast number of humor techniques, there are some which go hand in hand with the suspense techniques we've already discussed, while others are entirely new. Let's list some humor techniques: (l)Exaggeration: One of the most famous contemporary satirists, Ephraim Kishon, takes great pleasure in working with the exaggeration technique whenever he wants to capture the reader's attention and create "suspense." Kishon exaggerates shamelessly. He yanks events out of an entirely normal context and works minuscule, but bothersome details (for instance, that the soup is too hot) into a story. Kishon is particularly fond of exploiting life's little thorns for their humorous value. He blows these up into unrecognizable proportions, loses himself in the exaggeration and finally works in a surprising twist. This plan, as simple (almost) as it is effective, always works. (2)The surprising twist: We already know this technique. Let's ask ourselves once again, "How do you invent surprising twists?" Well, there are numerous ways. A word employed with a different meaning than the one expected makes for a surprising twist. For example, "Take my wife - please!" Another example of a surprising twist: "I'm not saying that he's a little on the slow side- I think he's a total moron!" The discrepancy between what is expected and what happens is a description of surprise. If you want to bring about surprise, you have to direct the reader/viewer/listener onto what appears to be a linear, predictable track. Once the imagination train starts chugging out of the station - you throw an unexpected switch. (3)Mix-ups: "Accidentally" confuse things with one another (persons, objects, places, etc.) This will create a comical effect. (4) Tell the truth about things that no one dares to tell the truth about; however, do this in a humorous fashion. (5)Set your sights on taboo topics. Publicly denounce surreptitious vices. If something is wrong, then say so directly (tax evasion, etc.)
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6)Make subtle implications. Allusions, innuendo and omissions situated properly - can also make your reader laugh.
MEHLER
- when
The salient point is that you should not classify jokes. That's a job for your ccountant. You have to isolate the method, the technique, the reason for ughter. At that point, you will be in a position to create jokes or humor at . ·ill. It has been said that humor is a divine characteristic. And it's a fact, hether you're writing non-fiction, a novel or a screenplay, you'll gain readers faster by using humor than if your publisher invests a million dollars in an ad ampaign. Classifying humor, differentiating between gallows humor, comedy, tragicomedy, vaudeville, stand-up, smutty humor and a hundred other technical distinctions, won't divulge the secret of how you, the author, can produce it. On the other hand, if you concentrate on technique, you'll be able to conjure up humor whenever you need it.
One way to achieve utter surprise is to use irony: Irony means stating exactly the opposite of what is obvious and factual. For instance, calling an ugly little man with an enormous nose a "handsome devil" is irony. In the U.S. some people say (quite enthusiastically) aaadd! They mean that it is good. That's irony.
that something is real
Technique No. 16: Enthusiasm Enthusiasm is another handy item in an author's bag of tricks. Readers are attracted to a happy, cheerful and positive person like moths to a flame. The same thing is true for happy, cheerful and positive literature. The enthusiasm technique, which often goes hand in hand with the concept of success, is a particular darling of good non-fiction. The work I cited earlier, Iacocca: An Autobiography, is a prime example of this technique, as is the lobal best seller In Search of Excellence. Dale Carnegie's book, How to Win Friends and Influence People or Napoleon Hill's Think and Grow Rich are also imbued with great enthusiasm and bursting with optimism. It's worth noting that it's easier to create an atmosphere of enthusiasm if you are in a good mood. But more on that later.
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Technique No. 17: Sex, Crime & Big Heads Sex, crime and big heads are the tools used by the press to catch readers' attention. This is a technique you should be familiar with. I should repeat at this point that sex itself is much less interesting than the hope of sex. The tender description of a lock of hair, of an earlobe, or of the back of a woman's neck can spur your reader's imagination to greater heights than serving up a detailed verbal schematic of the minutiae of a vagina. In order to fuel the suspense that's already building, initial misunderstandings can be used to prevent the hero from establishing an amorous liaison prematurely. The reader's erotic imagination is piqued when the anticipated love affair isn't consummated or, rather, the consummation isn't alluded to until the end of the book.
Technique No. 18: Isolated Suspense Let's distinguish between small suspense curves and large suspense curves. Momentary suspense (small suspense curve, isolated suspense) can come about merely through the length of a sentence. The reader begins reading a sentence - and wants to read all of it, of course. A superb example: The Sentence First it started moving, it, the sentence, stretching, straightening and shaking itself, then peeping around the corner until it believed that it wouldn't be seen by anyone, at which point it took a bold leap right into itself, where it wallowed about in increasing delight until it gave it another go, looking disdainfully at the next comma, which it reached in one brilliant bounce, after which it became arrogant, swallowing its own indication of place in one fell swoop, exuberantly hurling the adjectives against the subject and pelting the verb with the slippery object until it suddenly slipped, giving itself a bloody semicolon nose; this didn't stop it, however, from wildly, feverishly flinging its arms back - long, dangling, dubiously phrased relative clauses, held up on either side by dashes and then rising up again where it spotted a tiny comma on the pale blue horizon, almost made invisible by the distance, and then hurried towards
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it where, however, no sooner had it reached the comma than a colon enticed it down one more line where it sat, threateningly fat and solid, so much so that the upper dot almost touched the lower one, but the sentence rejected any approaches, slithering through the two sexually charged dots and then laughing tauntingly at them once through until it was distracted yet again by the dash that muddled up all its thoughts so thai the moment it had reached the farthest right end of the little dash, it lost its balance and tumbled down an abyss where, however, friendly quotation marks with the last name of "Krrettelkatt" caught it, but the sentence was sick and tired of it al!, so it stretched back (and forth) - and suddenly had nothing more urgent to do than to leap towards its own tail which it stopped short of reaching, preferring to tie a little knot there and then finally, after wandering all over the page, it finally reached its home port: a soot-black, cozily warm and perfectly round period. 8 There's no need to add an interpretation to this story. What it shows is that a single sentence does contain suspense and that it consists of one suspense urve. The principle all of this is based on is that the reader tends to finish a ycle once begun and therefore will keep on reading. You can also insert a "detonator" at the end of a sentence. Once the reader steps on this literary land mine, he'll be catapulted into the next sentence. The intertwining suspense relationship of separate sentences has yet to be the subject of serious study. Smaller isolated suspense curves can be shaped by one single sentence in addition to the techniques I've described so far. You could also call them "sub-suspense curves," which are strictly separated from the attention-getting narrative that glues the entire story together.
Technique No. 19: Point of View and Perspective Another way to get a firm grip on the reader's attention is by fashioning your own world. The first step is being able to consider objects and subjects from different perspectives . • Mehler, Ha. A.
"Das Muckelmannchen".
Wiesbaden,
1978.
P. 96.
•
55
How To
BUILD
HEART-POUNDING
SUSPENSE SYSTEMATICALLY
An example: Try to perceive your surroundings with the eyes of a dog. Vividly imagine what it's like to register everything using your olfactory organs, and from Fido's perspective two feet off the ground. The entire world of your impressions changes accordingly. Everything is judged on the basis of its smell, aroma or stench. Pretty interesting, wouldn't you say? An art historian would take in Rome with different eyes than a teenager would. Can you imagine how a stone must "think" or "feel" - or a water lily, or a koala bear? It's no exaggeration to say that you're in for some adventures. This is one of the staples of good writing, touching though it might on the area of creativity techniques, which will be described later in the book. So let's just leave it at this comment. Let's not forget, however, that the ability to take up different points of view, different perspectives is essential. These points of view could be people, animals, plants or inanimate objects whatever you want. Give it a try!
Technique No. 20: To Be Continued ... You can craft two primary suspense curves within one novel. One of these suspense curves is cut off at the most exciting part - only to be continued two chapters on. Get it? The monster spreads its jaws wide to devour Kunigunde ... End of chapter. A second narrative is developed. Siegfried, the noble knight, treads lightly through the forest, fighting bears, wolves and dragons, until he is suddenly confronted with a seemingly insurmountable obstacle ... End of chapter. Now it's Kunigunde's turn. And so on and so forth. This method is a favorite of television shows, since the producers want to lure the viewers back to the next episode. This method has a wonderful name, "cliffhanger." In other words, the hero, the protagonist, is hanging onto the edge of a cliff, moments from losing his grip and falling. An abyss yawns up at his feet. It would be the end of him if he were to fall. Here we have extreme, intense danger to life and limb. How will he save himself? Will he be able to save himself? Weeellll - you'll only find out if you watch the next episode of the show! A
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HA. A.
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cliftbanger," which is a metaphor for the "to be continued ... " suspense echnique, requires scriptwriters to use a special technique. They have to direct all the other narratives included in the plot toward this apparent ending only to reak off expertly once the tension has reached a fever pitch. Let's leave our survey of the realm of basic suspense techniques. We've seen that this is the clay from which authors can sculpt outstanding books. Of ourse, there's more we could learn in this area. There's even an academic field we could call Suspense Techniques: The Next Level. Do you want to know what that's all about? Yes? Really? Are you sure? To be continued ••.
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IV. Suspense Techniques: The Next Level
We haven't yet begun to make the precise, technical distinctions that are essential for those who wish to expand on the subject of suspense as a separate discipline. So let's take a closer look at the different forms of suspense. (1) Without a doubt the most important form of suspense is what we will christen the primary suspense curve. We could call it the "main suspense curve" or the "main suspense vein," but we're not worrying about the way these words might ring in your ear at the moment. The primary suspense curve is the suspense that is introduced at the beginning and is maintained until the end. More often than not, the introduction makes use of the goal or the mystery technique. This is what commands the reader's attention from the introduction to the conclusion. Less significant, but important enough, is another main suspense curve that we'll call the secondary suspense curve. This is another suspense curve that is placed at the beginning and is maintained until the end. However, this second curve is not as essential to the story line as is the primary suspense curve. Often, love, or, rather, the question "Will he get the girl or not?" is the focal point of the secondary suspense curve. There can also be a tertiary suspense curve, but rarely more than that. (2)Distinct from these are partial suspense curves that might last only a few pages or even a few chapters of a book, but that aren't taken up again throughout the entire book. Often, they can be categorized as an immediate danger or the potential of danger. There can be a plenitude of these smaller suspense curves. (3)The third form of suspense we will baptize isolated suspense. This implies extremely brief moments of suspense and comprises single sentences or perhaps the opposites attract technique applied to a miniscule space and a brief time span. We've divided
58
these types of suspense
based on their length or extent.
HA. A.
MEHLER
Needless to say, there are also intermediate levels. In the following experiment, this differentiation will be a crucial factor. After having discovered the separate suspense techniques, I conducted a tricky experiment: I turned my attention to some of the most renowned global best sellers, examining them closely and dissecting them in detail. I wanted to lay bare how these authors had created suspense. It was a highly intriguing experiment, and one I would urge you to undertake. The next time you pick up a gripping book that has you under its spell, that you find exciting and that keeps you up at night, ask yourself how your captivation has been accomplished, how the author engineered it. Analysis will become a valuable instrument for you. I might even dare to say that only a person capable of analyzing and observing is also capable of writing outstanding books. The most distinguished names grace the following pages, running the gamut from mystery legends such as Alfred Hitchcock and Agatha Christie or the world's most read science fiction authors such as Isaac Asimov (who once received a million dollar advance for a single novel) or Frank Herbert and the legendary E.E. Smith. I've dissected movies such as "Ben Hur," a James Bond film or two and "The Sting." The giants of our time, the likes of Richard Bach, who wrote Jonathon Livingston Seagull and Robert Ludlum - the creme de fa creme of suspense professionals, have all filed before my analytical eye. Start cultivating the attitude that it's to your advantage to clamber into the brains of these star authors and look through their eyes in order to discover how they see the world. Make an effort to understand how the best minds of his century made best sellers. I would highly recommend that you purchase and read one of the works I mentioned if you have not read it. I promise you it will be worth your while. You'll learn far more about suspense techniques than you would if you studied ten semesters of college English. And you'll be terrifically entertained to boot. So let's just plunge right into the fray and take a look at what might have been rattling around in the cerebral folds of these best-selling authors.
1.
The Most Refined Tricks of Best-Selling Authors
The individual analyses appear in this section. of things.
Let's just get into the thick
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SUSPENSE TECHNIQUES: THE NEXT LEVEL
Suspense Analysis No.1: This best-selling
Robert Ludlum's The Matarese Circle
author uses the following suspense techniques:
(1 )The heroes are up against true villains. In this case, two first-rate intelligence agents are trying to foil the plans of two exceptionally evil individuals whose goal it is to gain world dominance by causing the global economy to collapse. Opposites attract is the most prominent technique. The reader naturally wonders who will emerge the victor in the end, or, rather, how the cowboys in the white Stetsons will emerge victorious. There is an implicit goal involved in this. (Technique Nos. 5, 8, 9 and 12) (2)The research that went into making the intelligence service realistic is extremely impressive. From the equipment to the names of all the various intelligence services in Italy, England, France and the US. It's all accurate. You can clearly see that an enormous amount of investigation went into this book. (Technique No. 13) (3)Furthermore, danger, mortal danger, permeates the book. Unusual schemes are hatched and equally unusual attacks carried out. The plans are cunning and intelligent. The skills of each active character are also unusual. With the plot unfolding at a breakneck pace, there is action. (Techniques Nos. 3, 6, and 11) (4 )Constant surprises ensure that the reader's interest never flags. The entire book is chock full of entertainment, assuming that you enjoy this genre. The total number of copies of Ludlum books sold worldwide, more than 200 million, makes this author an outstanding example to follow.
Suspense Analysis No.2:
Frank Herbert's The Santaroga Barrier
Gilbert Dasein, the hero of the piece, is supposed to uncover the secrets of the small town of Santaroga. The government has determined that the townspeople behave very strangely and have shut themselves off from the rest of the world. Dasein performs various investigations in order to unearth the secrets, but in the course of these investigations he barely escapes death seven times. He initially dismisses these near misses as coincidences until the frequency of the apparent attacks leaves him no other alternative than to conclude that they are (at least sub-consciously) planned assassination attempts.
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At the same time, he encounters a mind-altering drug, "jaspers" at every turn, in the food and drink he is served and even in the air. The drug causes a drastic alteration of the user's attitude, opinions and personal views. Because Dasein has also ingested and inhaled the drug, he doesn't realize that his own behavior is rapidly conforming to that of the locals. He ultimately rejects the rest of the world, just as the Santarogians do and, at the very end, kills his friend and mentor Selador, the psychologist who assigned him to the Santaroga mission. So far, so good! Now let's get to the analysis. Consider the third (/) sentence of this diminutive masterpiece, "Gilbert Dasein pulled his truck on to the gravel, stopped at a white barrier fence and looked down into the valley whose secrets he had come to expose." This establishes the primary suspense curve. Dasein is supposed to clear up a mystery. This is simultaneously the goal. There are attendant circumstances shrouded in mystery that ensure that the reader never loses sight of the goal of resolving the riddle of the enigmatic Santarogians. It's remarkable that the reader identifies with Dasein and his thoughts. He ontinually ruminates on what he observes and ponders insightful questions, thus drawing the reader into the investigation/the goal. Dasein meets Jenny, a native Santarogian, before getting down to the business of unraveling the mystery of the strange town. Jenny's love for Dasein is the ostensible reason for his close scrutiny of the Santaroga. She tempts the reader with the hope of sex/love. This is the secondary suspense curve, which runs hrough the book parallel to the primary suspense curve. The extraordinary and bizarre nature of the accidents and attacks, and Dasein's changing perceptions which cross the line between what is considered normal and what is not, both combine to draw the reader into the plot. As you might expect, a surprising twist is introduced toward the end of the book. This manifests itself in two ways. First, the protagonist seems to backtrack on himself. He doesn't reach his goal. He doesn't shed any light on the mystery. Secondly, he kills his friend and mentor. Both developments surprise and astonish the reader. It's quite remarkable that the actual solution/twist is presented and wrapped up in about ten pages, while the preceding 230 pages have successfully kept the reader guessing whether Dasein would triumph over his adversaries or not. These suspense curves might look like this.
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SUSPENSE TECHNIQUES: THE NEXT LEVEL
Partial Suspense Curves
Beginning of Story
r-rL-"'-~L------------------~,-"--,,O Turning-point: "Dasein" is "reversed" and kills friend and mentor.
Ending of Story Love: Is fulfilled.
If we were to attempt to express this visually, we might describe the plot like this:
•
Suspense Intensity
Beginning of Story
62
•
Ending of Story
HA. A.
MEHLER
This diagram also reveals other details of interest to us. The story is more xciting at the peak of a partial suspense curve than at other points in the story. Another tidbit this figure discloses is the fact that the author has to invent a steady supply of subplots within the larger plot. Also, the more secrets the author introduces into the plot, the hungrier the reader becomes to get to the art where the riddles are solved. The question marks pile up, adding fuel to the reader's burning curiosity. As we've seen already, the writer's art consists of being able to fulfill these expectations. Frank Herbert pulls it off masterfully.
uspense Analysis No.3:
The Movie "Ben Hur"
May I omit the plot summary in this case? Millions of people have seen the film, which has been shown numerous times by a prodigious number of television stations. I think that it's in your best interest for us to plunge directly into the analysis. The method used to build up suspense in the movie is multilayered and relatively complex, which makes attempting an analysis of it even more exciting. The main suspense curves are: l)Ben Hur vs. Messala (good vs. evil = opposites attract plus a goal, namely to defeat the villain). (2)Will Ben Hur be able to attain his goal of finding his sister and mother? 3)Will he be able to convince his lovely Jewish sweetheart to marry him? (goal/love) In this case, it's essential to draw an exact line between the primary suspense urve and other suspense curves of secondary importance. Considering the fact that Ben Hur is h~ld prisoner on the galley and that his mother and sister have vanished, the question of whether he will marry his lover is less important. This is our visual representation of Ben Hur:
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SUSPENSE TECHNIQUES: THE NEXT LEVEL
This suspense curve is actually wavy; the depths of hopelessness alternate with triumph. It would be worth carrying out a separate study on the emotions in this cinematic hit, cataloging and following them throughout. Notice that it's fairly straightforward work to note the suspense curves in a comparatively complex story. Still, it would be possible to write a doctoral dissertation on the subject "Suspense in Ben Hur." Time to discuss the partial suspense curves. The following situations cause the suspense to swell in this Academy-award winning film. - Ben Hur is banished to rot on a slave galley (= horror at imagining this punishment = the unusual) - Mother and sister are threatened by an epidemic (=horror at imagining this "fate" = the unusual) - The competition between Messala and Ben Hur. The chariot race at the end involves extreme danger to life and limb and requires both men to perform at the outermost limits of their endurance (= danger plus action plus unusual performance. ) There are additional partial suspense curves. And, considering the film in question, it would be a mortal sin to forgo mentioning the set, which is singularly professional. Motion pictures are the products of the efforts of several hundred experts who deserve our utmost respect and honor.
64
HA. A.
Suspense ~nalysis
No.4:
Richard Bach's Jonathon
Livingston
MEHLER
Seagull
Let's turn our analytical attention to something completely different. Read through the first pages of the global best seller Jonathon Livingston Seagull, which was later adapted for the screen. While reading this work of soul-stirring beauty, pay close attention to how the author creates suspense and ask yourself why you continue reading.
JONATHAN LIVINGSTON SEAGULL BY RICHARD BACH, AN EXCERPT But way off alone, out by himself beyond boat and shore, Jonathan Livingston Seagull was practicing. A hundred feet in the sky he lowered his webbed feet, lifted his beak, and strained to hold a painful hard twisted curve through his wings. The curve meant that he would fly slowly, and now he slowed until the wind was a whisper in his face, until the ocean stood still beneath him. He narrowed his eyes in fierce concentration, held his breath, forced one ... single ... more... inch ... of... curve :.. Then his feathers ruffled, he stalled and fell. "Seagulls, as you know, never falter, never stall. To stall in the air is for them disgrace and it is dishonor. But Jonathan Livingston Seagull, unashamed, stretching his wings again in that trembling hard curve slowing, slowing, and stalling once more - was no ordinary bird ... 9 Do you know what the technique is? Jonathan Livingston Seagull is a classic example of how to construct a hero. The hero is almost inevitably characterized by something unusual. The main suspense curve is suspended between these two points. And here's a tip: When analyzing suspense, it's a good idea to distinguish between: (l)The initial suspense, i.e. how suspense is crafted in the initial phase of a book. (2)The primary suspense curve. (3)And the suspense in the final phase of the book, i.e. how the suspense progresses to its climax.
9
Bach, Richard.
Jonathon
Livingston
Seagull.
New York.
1973.
p. 12f.
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SUSPENSE TECHNIQUES: THE NEXT LEVEL
Suspense Analysis No.5:
Jack Vance's The Star King
Here's how the initial suspense is created. Two people are carefully sizing each other up while carrying on a conversation. The reason? Both are professing to be someone they're not. This ensures that • mortal danger is present as well as • an opposition (opposites attract) in addition to the fact that this situation is very unusual. The namely: (l)Will (2)Who (3)Will
predominant
suspense
is created
by the questions
the reader asks
a mysterious planet be found? (mystery/goal) is the star king? (mystery/danger) the hero trounce the anti-hero? (danger/goal)
A visual representation
of this scenario:
Mystery solved! Goal attained Mystery solved! Danger averted Danger averted! Goal attained Initial Suspense
Solution
So there are no fewer than three main suspense curves. Every individual suspense curve has been shaped by two suspense techniques. You have no choice but to read this book into the wee hours of the morning. Six suspense technique hold you in their thrall. Suspense Analysis No.6:
James Bond
Once you've analyzed a number of best sellers, you would be well advised not to fritter your time and attention away on things you already know, hedonistically wallowing in the pleasure of rediscovery. Your better move would be to keep on the lookout for new perspectives. This is the approach
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HA. A.
MEHLER
we'll take in examining the King of the Spies - Bond, James Bond. Before beginning the analysis, I need to highlight an important point. You ee, many critics literally shun the field of analysis, because they maintain, rroneously, that "originality" and "formula" are mutually exclusive concepts. But you should never look down your nose at formula, especially success formulas. A critic who grumbles that an author relies on the same "shtick" and hat the same "cliches" are trotted out over and over again has forgotten that using specific, tried-and-true formulas repeatedly is a virtue and a tactic (of uccessful entrepreneurs, for instance). James Bond is a film idea that is so mind-bogglingly successful that certain characters appear in film after film. This is an ideal subject for analysis. So what is the "standard" Bond movie? Let's list at least some of the characteristics. • 007 always ends up in the sack with gorgeous, exceptionally full-breasted beauties. Women weave their webs around him. Even villainesses succumb to his charms. • There is always an insane, megalomaniac gangster boss to be hunted down and whose base is destroyed at the end in an eye-popping special effects spectacle. • Bond is never ingratiating, not to the all-powerful gangster boss nor to his supenors. • No Bond film would be complete without outrageous high-tech gadgetry. It lends the movie a futuristic touch and a little shot of science fiction. • Unusual, but always elegantly constructed assassination schemes are the norm. We could go on, but Bond movies are well known. The telling point here is that one success formula is used over and over again, bringing in sales that have currently run into the hundreds of millions. But what tops it off for me, in addition to the delightfully gimmicky technology, is Bond's superior sense of British wit, set off by a dash of puckish merican humor. This appealing sense of humor offsets the extreme dangers 007 incessantly flirts with and allows the viewer to laugh. Two opposite extremes, grave danger - and a hero who masterfully overcomes it, dictate the plot's path. You could sniff out the "James Bond" recipe for success by analyzing how the different suspense techniques we've already discussed in this book are
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SUSPENSE TECHNIQUES: THE NEXT LEVEL
blended together in the films. suspense techniques!
Suspense Analysis No.7:
In fact, you'll
discover
everyone
of the 20
Edgar Wallace's "The Mysterious Magician"
Wallace's "Mysterious Magician" is an absolute masterpiece. the various suspense techniques in the film.
Let's analyze
(1 )At the beginning of the movie, you see a close-up of a door handle being turned. The camera then rotates to take in a pair of feet. Shortly thereafter, you hear a spine-tingling scream. Someone has just been murdered! A brief period of time passes then you see a female body slip beneath the water with an accompanying unsettling gurgling sound. Scotland Yard is tasked to solve the murder case. (mystery: who is the murderer?) (2)Hot on the heels of the mystery surrounding the identity of the murderer comes another discovery. The murderer's track leads Scotland Yard into the London underworld. As it turns out, the deceased woman's brother is the Wizard, a criminal mastermind by the name of Arthur Miller. Even the underworld lives in terror of this man. In spite of the fact that the police are on his trail, the Wizard travels to England from Australia in order to avenge his sister's death. But the Wizard evidently has an unusual talent. He can make himself invisible and thus elude his pursuers. So Scotland Yard is pursuing not only the murderer but the Wizard himself as well, who (3)ls also being hunted down by the underworld, whose denizens fear that any one of them might be the next victim. A diagram of the main suspense curves:
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HA. A.
MEHLER
From the point of view of suspense techniques, it's fascinating to observe the process by which the original goal at the beginning (collaring the murderer of the Wizard's sister) is superseded, or overlaid by a new, more important goal - nabbing the Wizard. This relegates the initial goal, defined in the first few minutes, to the third stratum, though it continues to be developed. The underworld gang is also on the hunt for the Wizard, setting an additional suspense curve in motion. This is a truly masterful structure. These three suspense curves are interlaced with the mystery technique. The reader wonders, "Who is the Wizard? What does he look like? How does he operate? Will he succeed in outwitting the underworld figures who murdered his sister?" As we can see, the Wizard has his own goal. And although he is shrouded in mystery, he is also exposed to danger by grotesquely (unusually) bumping off one underworld bad guy after another as the plot unfolds. The movie introduces yet another shady character to the action, confusing the viewer as to the actual identity of the Wizard (mystery). Another interesting tidbit, three Scotland Yard inspectors track the Wizard: • The clever one, • His vain know-it-all boss and • The retired inspector who met the Wizard long ago and itches to see him put away for good. Don't forget that the gangsters are also in hot pursuit, so there's quite an ensemble of interesting characters chasing the criminal mastermind. The fascinating ending does the brilliant film justice. The Wizard appears to fall for a trap. He announces that he will show up at a particular place. But only the mysterious figure the viewer has been led to believe is the Wizard actually appears. A double appears on the scene and the viewer realizes that one of the two is wearing a mask. The imposter is an Australian detective who followed the Wizard to London. The other guy is the Wizard. (1 st surprise) The Wizard has been identified. In the midst of the confusion his wife, Cora, shoots him and he collapses. But her pistol is loaded with blanks. The Wizard picks himself up off the floor, bolts and vanishes. (2nd surprise) The stunned detectives order a police officer to guard Cora. They go off in search of the Wizard. But there's another twist! The Wizard only appears to have vanished after bolting through the door. We learn that he overpowered
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SUSPENSE TECHNIQUES: THE NEXT LEVEL
the officer who was posted at the door, donned his uniform, re-entered the room and - surprise! - It is he who is assigned to keep an eye on Cora. (3'" surprise) Ending: The Wizard absconds with his wife. These three surprises at the end of the film are peerless delicacies worthy of our highest kudos. A visual representation of the ending of this film would look like this: Suspense Intensity
t" surprise 2'. surprise The ending to -rile Magnificent Magiciann
3"
surprise
Time axis
I will refrain from further dissection of the plot. But there is just one more thing. Everyone of the twenty suspense techniques appear more than once. The individual techniques have been intertwined so brilliantly that you're knocked out of your seat every time you see the film.
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Suspense Analysis No.8: Alfred Hitchcock's "The Man Who Knew Too Much" Story~' (1) Introduction: A doctor (accompanied by his child and wife, a once extremely popular singer) is approached by a man while on vacation in Morocco. Coincidentally. In a bus. They arrange to meet for supper. The man cancels afterwards. On one of the following days, the doctor spots the man again, who is now trying o escape some pursuers. One of the pursuers reaches the man and buries a knife in his back. The man scarcely manages to drag himself to the doctor and, his voice fading fast, tells him that an attempt will be made on an English politician's life. He manages to name an address in London before dying in the doctor's arms.
Analysis:
-
High position in society/=unusual Setting is Morocco/=unusual Who is the man?/=mystery Why does he cancel?/=mystery Danger
(2) Principal Action The challenge is to prevent a political assassination. No sooner had he reached his hotel than the doctor finds out that his child has been kidnapped. This measure is evidently aimed at preventing him from transmitting the man's words (he might have been an intelligence operative) to anyone. The doctor makes a lone effort to save his child's life and to prevent the politician from being assassinated.
Primary suspense curve: Will he be able to find and free his child?/=goal (related to it: danger and strong passions on the part of the mother. The viewer also wonders, "Who's holding this child hostage?"/ =mystery). Secondary suspense curve Will he be able to prevent the assassination? (goal)
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SUSPENSE TECHNIQUES: THE NEXT LEVEL
(3) Conclusion In the dramatic conclusion, the political assassination is foiled and the child rescued. The mother, performing a piano and vocal concert in the Moroccan embassy, prompts her child, who is being held in an another room, to whistle along with the music.
Surprising "solution": The child whistles along with the music.
Let's represent this in a diagram:
I (1) Introduction
I
I (2) Principal Action
(1) Relatively long introduction with brief partial suspense curves.
(2) Two main suspense curves (combined with mystery and danger)
(3) Conclusion
• TIME
(3) Relatively long conclusion. Surprising twists: • Assassination attempt foiled at the opera by mother's scream • Discovery of the whistling child. Overpowering the kidnapper accomplished handily.
Again, the way individual suspense techniques are masterfully combined is essential. Great writers never employ and use suspense techniques mechanically or robotically.
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HA. A.
Suspense Analysis No.9:
MEHLER
John Grisham's The Partner
This book is outrageously good. It's a jewel. No superlative is good enough for it. The primary suspense curve is produced by the reader's wondering "Will the main character (Patrick) outsmart his adversaries? Can he keep the money? Who will win?" At the beginning, the burning questions are: • What did Patrick do to get everyone after him and the money? • Where is the money? • What's going on, anyway? Various mysteries draw the reader deeper into the book. But the primary suspense is created by the question of whether Patrick will reach his goal and defeat his enemies. The reader is wrapped up in the mystery right at the beginning without even knowing what the details are. One mystery is unraveled after another in the course of the novel, while Patrick keeps his foes at bay by means of several highly intelligent, refined plans. One surprising twist after another thwart the opposing intentions of his numerous enemies. Detail-oriented research and expert legal know-how generate reality. At the end of the book, two surprising twists pop up: 1. He engineered the capture. 2. His girlfriend doesn't show up at the rendezvous and apparently keeps the money for herself. The moral of this story - surprising twists en masse ensure intense suspense! That is the overall plot. But it would also be worthwhile to pry apart and examine the partial plots. They are entirely different in some respects. Let's look at some of the suspense elements. 1st Chapter: Will the fugitive be arrested? (=goal) Intelligence service operations (=reality) Is he the one? (=problem) Does he have the money? Where? Why? (point of view of the pursuers)
(=mystery)
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SUSPENSE TECHNIQUES: THE NEXT LEVEL
2nd Chapter: (girlfriend's point of view) Do they have him? Or not? (danger/problem/not She transfers the money (=reality) She draws other people's attention to the fact that taken away (By who? Why is this important? =
knowing) . Patrick has been mystery/danger)
(Patrick's point of view) Deathly fear of torture/torture (=danger/unusual) Sodium pentothal ("truth drug"/= reality) The head bounty hunter (Stefano - point of view) is questioned by the FBI on Patrick's whereabouts (=danger) How do they know that? (=mystery) 3rd Chapter: Torture (Patrick - point of view) (extreme danger) Where is the money? (=mystery) (torture - point of view) (Girlfriend's point of view) Are the pursuers after me? (=danger) He hides the money (=reality/goal) You realize immediately that 1. Grisham works with combinations of suspense techniques. 2. Grisham nimbly changes points of view, i.e. narrating from the perspective of different characters. This makes it possible to pump up the suspense from different directions. 3. The research (reality) is flawless (place, circumstances, language, intelligence service operations, etc.) The lessons to be 1. Fashion a brilliant 2. Work with several ones at the end of
74
learned from the genius we know as Grisham are overall plot. surprising twists in the story and at least two additional the story.
HA. A.
MEHLER
3. Work with combinations of suspense techniques. Change perspectives and write from the points of view of different characters. 5. Carefully construct partial plots. 6. Perform excellent research.
Suspense
Analysis
No. 10:
E. E. Smith's
Triplanetaryt A Tale of Cosmic
Adventure The background of this novel is a war that is raging between two cosmic races, the Arisians and the Eddorians. The spiritually advanced Arisians embody good, while the equally intelligent Eddorians represent evil. Neither side fights directly against the other; instead, they use creatures from other planets whose development they influence or whose bodies they possess. Pirates, drug traffickers, etc. are influenced and used by the Eddorians, the evil side. Posiive, constructive beings receive help from the Arisians. The battle takes place on two levels, just like Homer's conception of the 'Iliad," in which the Trojans fight against the Greeks on the lower level while the gods have a go on the upper level. E. E. Smith, draws on various eras in human history (Rome, for example) re- fashioning accounts of wars and conflicts as battles between Arisians and Eddorians. That is the framework of the novel. Let's take a look at one of the plots that runs through one volume of this world-famous series. Costigan (protagonist, representative of the human race and positively influenced by the Arisians) is initially fighting Roger (his foil, a pirate whose body is possessed by an Eddorian). Thanks to new technical advances of which Roger is unaware, Costigan is able to save himself and Clio (a brave, beautiful alien girl) from imprisonment by the pirate (initial suspense). The primary suspense curve in this book consists of the battle between Costigan and Roger. This is the lower level good guy/bad guy battle. A third party appears on the scene, to our utter astonishment. Costigan must also defend himself from the Nerians, a fishlike race capable of interstellar navigation. As you can see, this is an exceptional case. This reminds us that it may not be enough to work with two opposing parties. The real genius lies in the fact that it is not Costigan, but a companion from his camp who defeats Roger and the Nerians.
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This is one way of visualizing the plot of this book:
hehero.s companions save the day
'
Let's examine the structure in more detail. The primary suspense curve includes: Will the Arisians (represented by Costigan) defeat the Eddorians (represented by Roger)? Secondary suspense curve: Will Costigan defeat the Nerians (a new, third power)? Of course, the more common way to craft this piece would be to place the hero (Costigan) in conflict with the two different enemies (Roger/Nerians) and to have him defeat both with the support of his companions. But the author took the road less traveled. It's fascinating that it turns out that Costigan, the hero, is not the decisive factor in the battle, but rather his companions, the group, who save the day. The basic structure remains the same. Good versus evil, opposites attract, and "Will the hero(es) attain his (their) goal or not?" Always remember to look for the basic structure beneath the apparent complexity.
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The Merchant of Souls
Now let's change the tempo and experience some "live suspense." I've included a short novella below for you to analyze for suspense techniques. Professionals often prefer to just enjoy reading the story the first time through, letting the story reach out and grab them, and then dissect the story and lay the structure bare on the second reading. You could do the same thing if you ish. By the second time through, analyze the story, which is set in the 17th entury. Then compare your analysis with mine. The question you should eep in mind as you read the story analytically is, "How is suspense established in this story?" Have fun!
The Merchant of Souls 1 I had never felt such a burning interest, such fascination, such a hypnotic attraction for any person as I felt for the legendary and controversial Count of Saint German. This swashbuckler and alchemist was described by some, the French police, for example, as a highly calculating and extraordinarily vicious spy and swindler. Others held him to be nothing less than a wizard endowed with supernatural abilities, a warlock whose powers surpassed those of mere mortals and who was privy to the deepest mysteries of the human soul. Intensive research had unequivocally revealed to me that his true forte was alchemy, the art of making gold. The enigma of the origin of this skill gives rise to the most bizarre conjectures. Its practitioners were rumored to seek the wondrous elixir of immortality which the Count of Saint Germain was said to hold in his possession. The Count himself was the subject of the most astonishing rumors. The very fact that L, at long last, was about to meet him (and hopefully turn the conversation to the elixir) made my blood run ice-cold. I had a favorite niece in Paris, as precocious as she was attractive,
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who had sent me an impassioned letter about the warlock. Reading between the lines, I could see that she was torn between horrified repugnance and unreserved admiration for him. I stood awaiting the appearance of the Count, impatiently skimming the letter for at least the fiftieth time, in a vain attempt to distract myself from the overheated anticipation of the long sought-after interview. My lovely niece wrote: ... even the most stubborn realists agree that he is the Sphinx of our century; not only does Monsieur le Count speak fluent English, Spanish and French, to say nothing of his impeccable German, but he is also competent in the written and spoken languages of antiquity! And, dear uncle, I have also discovered what a brilliant storyteller he is. He recounts little known and occasionally risque details about the lives of Cleopatra and Henry VIII. Mystery surrounds this adventurer. If one chooses to listen to the court gossip, he is an immeasurably wealthy nobleman, capable of turning base metals into gold and manufacturing precious jewels of uncommon size and purity! I hardly know what to think of all this, particularly in light of the strange rumors which revolve around the Count's age, a subject in which you are apparently highly interested. Reliable sources have informed me that a stranger once told the Count's servant, Roger, that his master was a liar to claim to be 4000 years old. Whereupon the servant retorted, 'I should know better than you, Monsieur, for a hundred years ago, when] took up service with my lord, he told me that he was 3000 years old. Perchance he forgot 900 years or merely banished them from his memory!' Enemies as well as admirers discuss these things with the most serious expressions, dear uncle! ... In order to form an objective picture of the Count, I had consulted many sources. His reputation seemed to shift as quickly as the shimmering facets of his priceless gems. Many accounts, often obtained directly from eyewitnesses, were no less extraordinary than that of my niece. For example, in political circles it was fabled that the Count, already
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over a hundred years of age, had brokered the sensational peace between Prussia and Austria and had a hand in-toppling Peter II of Russia. There were official documents which certified that St. Germain had died at the hands of the Landgrave of Hessen-Kassel in 1784. Other documents, dating from the year 1785, only one year later, convincingly evinced that he attended a large freemason congress in Paris on the 15th of February at which virtually all the secret orders met to confer on the political future of Europe. The fact that he was still alive had been clear to me since the day he had announced his impending visit, a favor he had owed me - or, rather, my family - for quite some time. Impatient and anxious, I awaited his arrival with extreme nervousness. I was quite prepared either to express the profound respect due such an extraordinary person or to tear the mask from the face of a swindler and charlatan. As I ruminated on the possibilities, the double doors to my study flew open and my stalwart servant calmly announced the arrival of the Count of Saint Germain.
2 I must admit that I had pictured St. Germain differently. The Count was by no means what one might commonly call a handsome man, despite his obviously refined taste and style of dress. I was particularly struck by his eyes, as dark as night and filled with a thousand demons one moment, only to change their expression, mood and passion entirely in the next. One's immediate reaction, when leveled with such a gaze as his is to ward it off with a protective gesture or cross oneself. I was simultaneously shuck by another thought - that only a thoroughly unruly and devious spirit would perch in that head. I could feel the most conflicting feelings struggling within me. For just one fleeting moment I imagined myself capable of defining and understanding this man who stood before me, the soul of this swashbuckling daredevil. I was certain that acquiring control over the powers and forces raging within him, forces he had bent to his will, had cost him dearly. His face resembled a bird of prey. It was a face that would have suited a pirate. But it belonged
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to this elegant nobleman, decked out in an opulent yet tasteful furtrimmed robe, which was elaborately ornamented with precious jewels. Even the sparkling buttons which held it together were cut from brilliant priceless stones. "Interesting to see," said the Count with a glance at my niece's letter, scattering my thoughts, "that you have made inquiries about me in advance of my visit. Perhaps you know me better than I know myselfl" He smiled an almost imperceptible ironic smile as he bowed briskly, leaving me fumbling for an apology. "That may be so," I responded, a little embarrassed. "Under ordinary circumstances, it might seem a bit unorthodox; nonetheless, you must admit that the highly unusual anecdotes circulating about you give rise to endless speculation and pique curiosity. In the same breath, however, I should like to beg your forgiveness in this matter." "An extremely polite century," opined the Count, smiling strangely to himself, very much as though he were casting a rapid glance over the events of past centuries. "But let's not stand on ceremony," he continued. "You are aware that I am deeply indebted to your family, Monsieur. Your father once rendered me an invaluable service in an extremely delicate matter. The matter you have requested my assistance in is equally delicate, I am sure. Would I be correct in assuming that, in fact, the question you are about to pose is a matter of life and death?" "Before you answer, let me warn you, however, that the lesson I learned through many rounds of verbal wrestling with my modest friend Socrates," the Count went on, his predatory countenance lighting up with the same ironic smile, "is that I know only that I know nothing. But feel free to ask. I am at your service" To this day, I still do not know what spring fed his impudent selfconfidence. Minute gestures, precisely measured and performed expertly, underscored his insolent words at precise moments and lent him the air of a veteran actor. As he spoke, the slightest inflection on a single syllable could imbue a word or a thought with color, ambiguity and mystery, This was offset by the mocking tone he habitually affected. Flamboyance, an aura of mystery and an alien energy wove invisible threads around
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him. In his presence, one felt a certainty that this man was not only capable of reading thoughts, but also of peering into the very depths of the soul. I sought to hide my confusion by lending a firm tone to my voice and proclaiming, "Monsieur Count, allow me to speak bluntly. You are either the most perfidious fraud of our century or you are endowed with powers and forces we mere mortals shudder even to imagine." The Count was unfazed. i I continued, "You have consented to answer one question, a question which shall determine your forthrightness and character. I wish nothing less from you, Count Saint Germain, than a glimpse under the veil that protects the mysteries of - death!" Several minutes passed before the Count moved so much as a muscle. He stood frozen like a marble statue. The suspense was unbearable. My mind was enshrouded, as if by some magic potion. My heart convulsed and seemed to beat perceptibly slower. In the deathly quiet I heard nothing but the pounding of my own heart until, at last, the Count spoke, "Only an extraordinarily brave or, perhaps, remarkably dense man would dare to ask such a question, mon cher ami! I would strongly admonish you to rein in your curiosity." Without pausing for a word of objection or approval from my lips, the Count continued, "Be assured that the nursery tales of babes and evil stepmothers have no relation to reality. Reality is a thousand-headed hydra, a monster that feeds on your terror even as it devours you alive." I will never know what demon moved me to speak my next words, but after a breathless pause, I heard myself whisper, "I beg you to tell me the truth, Count! I must know the truth no matter how horrifying it might be." The Count nodded decisively, rose to his feet and began to pace wordlessly, his arms crossed behind his back. He gave the impression of a man weighing dire options. Suddenly he stopped and turned to face me and warned me in a stern tone, "The truth, you madman, could inflict wounds upon you that a human heart is too small to bear. If you go through with this, you will never be the same man again. Know that you
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are risking everything!" But his strange words only served to fuel my burning desire to be initiated into the secret of death. I demanded that St. Germain put an end to this undignified game of hide-and-seek at once. The warlock fell silent again for what seemed an eternity, as though he was waiting for me to come to my senses and reconsider. Finally, he murmured, "I must regretfully acknowledge that 1 have failed in my attempts to change your mind. Stand up, then, and bring your ear directly to my lips." Dazed, I leapt to my feet and leaned in close to the brigand's face. The blood coursed through my veins like molten lava. 1 could feel the heat of his breath on my skin. 1 waited, breathless, for him to reveal the secrets of the greatest mystery of life, yearning to gain control over death itself. 1 was shocked and horrified to see the Count's form begin to shift and change. He seemed to stretch and solidify into the shape of a dark, forbidding tower. Before 1 could utter a cry or attempt to defend myself, a steel stiletto flashed in his right hand. The warlock plunged the dagger deep into my breast. My hands reached up to grasp the knife he had buried in my body. Unutterable shock was written on my features. The Count laughed hoarsely and malevolently. He hissed these words that 1 will never forget, "Death must be experienced to be understood, you damned fool! But we shall meet again ... !" 1 do not know if the nearness of death caused me to hallucinate, but 1 saw his raven-black eyes multiply and swim before my eyes in his hawklike face 1 was unspeakably horrified to see my body collapse dead in his arms as I watched from a strange new vantage point twelve feet above the floor. 3 For some time, (I can't say how long - Hours? Weeks? Years?) 1 savored the cosmic quiet, soft as down and gentle as falling snow. 1 was disturbed by neither unsettling images nor meddlesome thoughts. This milieu was pure and cool. But it was also alien and incomprehensible. I sensed vaguely that I was still alive, that I had withdrawn to my self, just as a snail or a clam withdraws into its shell. 1 knew that something
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capable of thinking "I am" existed, although I was unable to determine in what state or element. I reveled in the sensation of being weightless, bodiless. A feeling of joy I had never known before permeated my very being. I would have erupted in waves of ecstatic laughter, but I had no body, no air-filled lungs, and no diaphragm to contract. I had no mouth to emit the mirthful sounds. I knew no limit to these strange sensations in which I was immersed, cozy, smug and dumb. There was no above, no below, no right or left. The Count had indeed been correct. .. No sooner had this thought shot through my consciousness than memories of my death re-surfaced. Events I had briefly experienced in what seemed to be distant centuries danced before my eyes like sparkling points of light. The Count had kept his word. I was privy to the secret of death, but I took no comfort in that fact. Everything I had owned, my castle, my titles, all my worldly goods and chattels had been taken from me forever. With this realization, it was as if a dam had burst in my consciousness. Suddenly I remembered Saint Germain's words of warning, "You are risking everything!" But had he not also said that we would meet again? Despite the flood of vague premonitions, I grasped at this thought with all of the desperation of a drowning man. Once more I saw his raven-black eyes before me. I painfully relived my death one last time, felt the cold steel of the dagger he had thrust into my chest. Suddenly I could see so clearly that it was as if I had never seen before. I realized how truly little a body is worth. It is nothing but a tiny scrap of flesh that must be tended to all of one's life as one would tend a helpless infant, feeding it, keeping it clean, and hanging upon its shoulders gaudy, ridiculous garments. With that thought, the Count's face blurred in my mind's eye. The image of him bending over my corpse sank back into the mud. At length all of these troubling images withdrew into the distance and grew ever fainter until the mists enveloped and obscured them. I felt no hatred for the old warlock. I left the comfortable place where Lhad solved a thousand riddles - riddles whose solutions only seemed to spawn thousands more of their kind.
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Now that I am more conversant in the mechanics of the purely spiritual state, I understand the force that had drawn me inexorably to Paris. I was instantaneously transported by a thought, the execution of it taking place before the concept itself had even fully unfolded within my mind. I found myself amid a buzzing, surging crowd in the heart of the French capital. Surprised, I recognized my beloved Paris in every colorful detail: the whimsical fountains, Notre Dame, the picturesque bridge across the Seine and countless other familiar sights. Playful, almost giddy, I derived the greatest amusement from blowing exquisitely tasteless hats from the heads of fashionable Parisians. I also took a diabolical pleasure in blowing the ladies' skirts up over their heads, relishing the sight of the squealing damsels desperately struggling to hold their skirts down, mortified that their lacey multi-layered petticoats and puckered kneelength knickers were on display for every passerby to see. I don't know precisely how long this period of carefree tomfoolery went on until, one day, I felt a hypnotic attraction to a carriage drawn by four high-spirited horses, or, rather, to its driver, an exceptionally striking young woman. Judging by the exquisite lines of the horses, the coat of arms emblazoned on the carriage and the driver's fine clothing, this lovely Countess belonged to a family of the highest rank of the nobility. She sat utterly alone as she drove the opulent but unusual carriage. I was irrepressibly drawn to her face, feeling intoxicated as I drank in her finely chiseled features, which seemed oddly familiar. The shock of death had apparently caused considerable damage to my memory, for I was utterly unable to recall this woman's identity. While still immersed in contemplating her breathtaking beauty, I realized to my astonishment that the Countess had lost control of the carriage. The horses, tormented by stinging insects, bolted and refused to be reined in. For the first time, I cursed my non-corporeal state. Without the benefit of physical force and motion, I was powerless to come to her aid and was forced to stand by and watch in horror, as the horses raced on at a full gallop. Two or three valiant passers-by tried in vain to place themselves in the path of the careening vehicle only to be hurled violently aside. By now, the Countess had given up all attempts to bring her runaway horses to a halt and was clinging desperately to her
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seat as the carriage sped on at breakneck speed. Screaming promenaders scattered in all directions. I was overcome with a sudden nausea and dizziness. I became disoriented and would have screamed had I been able to and had any poor creature been able to hear me. I was the only one who saw the yawning pothole, deep enough to break the legs of the galloping horses, directly in the path of the carriage. But all entreaties, prayers and curses were in vain. Dazed, I perceived the horses gallop straight for the crater in agonizing slow motion as if time were moving at a fraction of its usual speed. Their skidding hooves launched clumps of clay and mud into the air and I heard the sickening sound of bones snapping as the scene dissolved into a writhing tumbling mass of sweaty equine bodies, an explosion of carriage splinters, and a shattering shock wave of pain and desperation. The Countess was thrown high into the air and then flung head-first to the ground, where she lay motionless. At first glance, it appeared as though she had broken her neck. But her injuries, though grave, were not fatal. I was relieved to find that she had suffered only a fractured arm, a few shattered vertebrae and innumerable abrasions and contusions. Most astonishing to me was that the poor woman, or, rather, her actual self, her soul or spirit, believed, as did the horrified witnesses who were gathered around, that she had been mortally wounded and had perished. I had witnessed her panicked retreat from her body and sensed the overwhelming dread which impelled her to escape and not be forced to face the sight of her broken body lying on the ground in the midst of this scene of chaos of doom. The shocked onlookers stood numbly around the motionless body and foundered horses. Finally several doctors shouldered their way into the growing crowd and carried the spiritless body away on a litter. Spurred on by some primordial knowledge or millennia-old reflexes, the previously unfathomable thought blazed through my mind that the injured body on the litter was still viable and usable. To my eternal amazement, I brazenly resolved to capitalize on the Countess' death. The pain of my physical incapacity and inability to intervene in the tragedy which I had just been forced to witness helplessly, burned within me. Perhaps in my frustration and loss I was not thinking clearly, but I was
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determined to act. I crept up on the soulless body like a thief, slipped into it and was racked with excruciating pain. The ownerless body drove its pain into the soul within it. If I wanted to possess and operate it, I would be forced to accept the pain. Overcome by this realization, I briefly experienced a strange lapse of consciousness, but I managed somehow to hold on to the body. In my half-conscious state, as I held on to these strange limbs with all the strength I was capable of summoning up, I heard one of the doctors call out, as if from a great distance, "The Countess moved! The dead woman just moved!" Then, mercifully, I fell into a deep, pitch-black unconsciousness. 4 I awoke drained and groggy, an invisible weight pressing on my temples. I was at first unable to recall anything whatsoever. I could only sense a yawning abyss and a glimmering that something inconceivable had occurred. The more intense my efforts to summon the events back to my memory, the more painfully my head throbbed. It felt as though some sadistic sculptor was chiseling away at my skull. Gradually, a few shreds of images began to materialize. I was vaguely aware that I had heedlessly thrown myself into an adventure with no foreseeable outcome. It dawned on me slowly, although I knew that no one, human or divine, would believe me, that I had stolen into a body that the previous owner had fled in shock. Though suffering from the most excruciating headache, I took a cautious look at my sickroom and was startled to discover that my arm had been bandaged with white gauze. Adding insult to injury, my skin itched and burned in a hundred places from abrasions and lacerations and my lower extremities appeared to consist solely of a thousand tiny pinpricks. When I attempted to sit upright, the walls began to close in on me. The room was spinning like a carousel. I fought against the bile rising in my throat. "Praise be to Lord Jesus, the Countess has awoken!" I heard a muffled voice cry out as several blurry figures rushed toward me. But before I could speak, the pain thrust me into unconsciousness again and I fell into a deep sleep.
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When I awoke the second time, the walls around me seemed to be strangely bright and white. Nonetheless, I grasped the fact that I was alive. And I had a new body! It pleased me to think that, even though it would take some time for this battered body to restore itself, I was, at least, identifiable again. I had a name and a title. I could touch and I could feel the touch of another. I knew, incontrovertibly and indisputably, that I existed! As if by chance, I suddenly recalled the Count of Saint Germain, his raven-black eyes, his brigand's face. I felt the stab wound in my chest, a chest I no longer possessed. All the same, I could still acutely feel the burning pain of the stiletto. I was dully aware of my death and that I had seized or stolen this forsaken body. My knowledge was very limited because I could not freely avail myself of my previous memories. Worse yet, I knew very little about the world of the Countess into which it was now necessary to assimilate myself. Despite these complications, the gods - or whoever was responsible for my outlandish fate - had reserved some additional surprises for me surprises that would soon preoccupy me utterly and completely. I was quite unprepared to receive a handsome gentleman with a fine, well-trimmed moustache who, without preamble, planted an unabashedly passionate and tender kiss on my mouth. The most conflicting feelings stirred within me. Although I was disinclined to exchange intimacies with a complete stranger, I had to admit that the contact was not unpleasant. At the same time, I was stunned to realize that true feminine feelings began to awaken within me and that I was beginning to perceive the world more and more through the eyes of a woman. The peaceful bed rest worked wonders. Every nap refreshed me and brought me closer to full recovery. I was now capable of distinguishing between the faces of my attendants. I began to cautiously familiarize myself with the life of the Countess and the labyrinthine etiquette. But my progress was inhibited by ominous half memories. I began to look forward to the vists of my dashing admirer, whose moustache tickled my lips as he greeted me with increasingly passionate kisses. I was shocked by the erotic feminine sensations which stirred within me. My ambivalence toward adjusting to the changes in my sensory
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world puzzled me vaguely. I was conscious of the time and patience that .would be necessary to accustom myself to my new role. All of this may have been easier to bear if I could have confided my partial, imperfect and strange memories to anyone. But I was held back by the fear that I might be committed to the Charenton insane asylum, never to be seen again. The cloying expressions of sympathy uttered by my new relatives, who occasionally seemed very familiar, even eerily so for some inexplicable reason, subsided after a period of time. The stir caused by a lady of good breeding, a Countess, having barely missed breaking her beautiful neck in a calamitous carriage wreck preoccupied the gossipmongers less and less, until, after some months, it quietly faded away. As if to compensate, my hot-blooded admirer grew ever more impetuous and bold. But the promise of the spring of our lives was overshadowed by the course of events. My recovery was progressing nicely. My mood alternated between cheerfulness and boredom. One day as I sat demurely in my bed, propped against luxurious pillows, enjoying the lingering kiss of my handsome young lover, my maid unexpectedly entered my room to inform me that a visitor urgently wished to see me. 5 I began trembling uncontrollably, though, logically, I knew that there was no cause for such apprehension. What was only a premonition became certainty, however, when the maid timidly informed me that the visitor in question was a nobleman who declined to provide a name. But, she said, he had offered a token in exchange for my granting his request for a private interview. With these words, she handed me a brilliant gemstone of unusual size and purity. I was overcome with irrational panic. Only St. Germain would announce himself in this fashion. My entire body tensed; nonetheless, I endeavored to remain calm and asked my beau to leave me alone with the visitor. My heart was in my throat and my palms were clammy with perspiration, but I gathered my courage and summoned the Count to me. Perhaps it was only coincidence, but the Count was attired in the
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same opulent robe he had worn the night we met, that first encounter when he had demonstrated the foolishness of my curiosity so dramatically. He entered the room, glowering cryptically at me with his raven-black eyes. He bowed curtly and asked, "Might I take the liberty to inquire about the Countess' health and congratulate her on her rapid recovery?" He colored the word "Countess" with a familiar, but ineffable, ironic undertone and it plunged me into immediate uncertainty and extreme confusion. Stifling the trembling in my voice and struggling to regain my composure, my response was a curt "But of course, Count!" The silence that followed was oppressive. His mocking eyes bore into me until, at last, I snapped, "To what bravura or notoriety do I owe the honor of your visit?" The Count slowly removed his silken gloves and answered nonchalantly, "My dear Countess, I held it to be my duty to determine whether you are satisfied with the answer to your question and with my sorcery?" I blanched and plucked at my nightgown nervously. This merchant of souls had the unparalleled impertinence to mock me in the same breath as he flattered me. "Our trade is complete," I answered as quietly as possible, trying unsuccessfully to master the tension in my voice. "As to my death, your proof lacks both certain artistic and scientific dimensions. But please permit me, Count, to ask how you could be so certain that I would be here?" As I spoke, St. Germain appeared to be engrossed in admiring his brilliant buttons. Ignoring my question, he abruptly wrenched one of the precious stones from his robe and barked, "One of the most invaluable lessons in life, Countess, is the understanding that one must occasionally permit oneself to know absolutely nothing about certain subjects!" With these words, he thrust the brilliant button into my hands, as though it embodied and symbolized this lesson. Inexplicably, he turned the discussion in an entirely different direction. We chatted about the most trivial subjects; however, I was perplexed by the Count's insistence on repeatedly turning the conversation to the subject of my uncle. At that moment, I could not fathom what devilishness lay hidden behind his
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ambiguous smile. The most impeccable conduct characterized his behavior, which, fastidious as it was, did not reveal that he was aware of the confusion he had caused within me. Stubbornly, he nudged the conversation back to my uncle. At every mention of his name, a speculative gleam shone in his dark eyes, causing me - though I do not know why - to shudder. The bantering tone of our talk emboldened me to finally dare to venture, "It is a mystery to me, dear Count, why you display such a burning interest in my uncle. Honestly, and to speak in plain terms, I know neither his profession nor his importance, although the mention of his name touches a strange chord in me. But I have neither the memory of my last existence at my disposal - I cannot even recall my name - nor do I have at my command the experiences of the Countess, whose role I am attempting to play like a comedienne of mediocre talent. So why do you insist on speaking of this person?" "Curb your impatience, Countess!" replied the Count, irritated. "You of all people should have learned that one should never fail to avail yourself of an opportunity to remain silent. He looked searchingly and intensely at me again before continuing, "Countess, in the interest of telling you the truth - apparently no one has dared to tell you, for fear of impeding the progress of your recovery - I must tell you that this relative, your uncle - is dead! He was the victim of a - shall we say - an unnatural death!" St. Germain paused for a moment as I slowly began to grasp the gravity of what the Count was about to tell me. Ashen-faced, I demanded that he finish his revelations. "Scurrilous tongues even maintain," continued the Count, the familiar cruel, ironic smile playing about his lips, "that your uncle met his demise after a nobleman of our rank paid him a visit. .. after the visit of a certain - Count of Saint Germain! In fact, your relatives found him murdered with a stiletto buried in his chest. You, Countess, ought to have known him very well ... " I do not know how long I sat there, staring into nothingness. I was overcome with an icy cold and then a searing heat; I was light-headed and shivered as though with fever. There was no doubt: in my last
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existence, I was the uncle of the Countess whose body I had seized after the carriage accident. In my previous existence, I was my own uncle or, to be more precise, the uncle of the person whose body I now occupied! I could see it all very clearly now. I realized why the sight of the Countess driving the carriage had drawn me to her like a magnet (she was my own niece, after all!) and why even the Countess's relatives had seemed so familiar to me. I heard something shatter in my skull. Abruptly even the most insignificant detail, the most unimportant event in my previous life came rushing back, bombarding me with so many thousands of memories that I had to struggle not to be suffocated by the violence of the images. I later learned that my murdered uncle had bequeathed his entire estate to his niece, at length allowing me to inhabit the same castle and the same quarters as before my demise. While looking in a drawer in my (old) desk, I found the letter which my niece had sent me from Paris and from which I reproduced some excerpts at the beginning of this account. Incidentally, the Count took his leave unobtrusively and quickly in precisely the instant in which the memory of my previous existence returned. He disappeared before I could shake off my paralysis and inform him of my newfound knowledge. To this day, I still do not know whether St. Germain was merely an unscrupulous, conspiratorial spy or a clairvoyant sorcerer and alchemist. Too much remained unsaid, imponderable and ambiguous, even though I had experienced the warlock's power over souls in an undeniably real and painfully personal way. Despiteall my searching, I never set eyes on the Count again.
We'll begin after you've completed your analysis. What produces this suspense curve? Correct! The main character's goal is to reveal the secret of life after death. The plot contains a mystery as well. Additionally, the focus in the initial phase of the story is on the unusual, mysterious person of the Count of Saint Germain and on an unusual action, i.e. a murder. The plot shifts direction several times throughout the remainder of the story,
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specifically - when the protagonist is murdered, - when he takes over a new body, - when he encounters the Count again and finally - when he finds out, to his utter astonishment, that he assumed his niece's body and has inherited everything he owned in his past life. It is evident that the author of this story must have conceived of the conclusion before putting pen to paper. At least two ideas would have been the basis of his inspiration (cf. Technique No.2). The point of view and perspective technique, described in more detail in Chapter IV, was used in conjunction with the danger and action present in the plot. But let's concentrate our attention on the primary suspense curve. As we've already seen, the goal/mystery in this work consists of uncovering the secret of life after death. When a goal has been reached and a mystery unraveled, it is standard practice to set new goals, although this was not necessary considering the brevity of this novella, in which one surprise followed closel on the heels of the previous one. You, the author, would be well advised not to consider suspense technique from a purely mechanical point of view. Sometimes, a goal loses its power or is overshadowed and supplanted by a new goal. There are too many variations for you to boil them all down to one simple rule of thumb. So what did you discover in your analysis? Perhaps your analysis differs from mine. If that's the case, then I have a surprise in store for you. The story The Merchant of Souls, 10 is the product of my pen. I considered its design very carefully before writing it. The term surprise brings us to our next topic, which will require some elaboration.
3.
Surprise Revisited
The surprise could be described as the core, the culmination, if you will, of all suspense techniques. If this technique is not applied skillfully, the reader might be disappointed 10
Cf. Ha. A.
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Mehler.
The Merchant oj Souls.
Wiesbaden.
1984.
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by the twist, the surprising spin, the change of direction in the plot. On the other hand, if skillfully applied, she will be satisfied and astonished. Let's take a closer look at technique. Many contemporary best-selling authors and successful screenwriters focus on producing genuinely surprising surprises. A paragon of this technique is the television series "The Persuaders." One episode in this series was based on the following premise: The Persuaders, Roger Moore and Tony Curtis, are hired by a woman whose inheritance has been threatened. Her brother has suddenly arrived on the scene and plans to claim his share of her recently deceased father's estate. The problem is that her brother had been declared dead by the courts. The woman thinks that the stranger is a charlatan and hires the Persuaders to investigate. The results - Surprise No.1: Some details indicate that the respectable notary was at the root of the scam and had declared the wrong man dead. Surprise No.2: The PI's discover that the sister is a phony but the brother is the real McCoy. Surprise No.3: In the blink of an eye, a third "detective," who was hired by the sister, draws a Colt on the Persuaders. But they overpower him. So, the screenwriter serves up three surprises. He even makes room for a humorous fourth one. Surprise No.4: Tony Curtis had admired Roger Moore's shapely young "housekeeper." Roger Moore is just about to complain that she has been stolen away from him when he spots her in Tony Curtis' room ... This is an additional gag. The moral of this story is that old hands in the literary arts will employ several surprises. Let's take a look at a second example, this time "The Sting" starring Paul Newman and Robert Redford. A bookmaking joint is opened with the goal, which is simultaneously the primary suspense curve, of taking some money off a repulsive, wealthy gangster's hands. The viewer wonders, "Can they pull this scam off? Will their plans bear fruit? Will they be able to flimflam the gangster out of his money?" The reader quakes along with Redford and Newman, hoping that the gangster will fall for the trick. Their mark has been lured in with the story that this new bookmaking joint allegedly uses certain technical innovations that guarantee the gangster big winnings. How has the conclusion been designed?
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(l)The ploy is successful. The gangster's pockets are emptied. However, the author serves up a few more surprises. (2)FBI agents suddenly appear on the scene. Is a betrayal behind it all? There is a wild shootout. (3)These are fake shootings of Newman and Redford. The viewer realize that the FBI agents who appeared to have killed the two men have been part of the plot to mislead the gangster and nip any potential revenge in the bud. The plot shifts direction twice during the conclusion. This reveals that Aristotle and other theoreticians were correct in demanding that the plot must always shift direction at least once at the end, in a positive direction, in the case of a comedy, or in a negative direction, in the case of a tragedy. They were also correct to demand that there should always be some form of "retarding momentum" directly prior to that point in the plot. Actually a plot might change directions constantly, five times or even more, at any point in the work. Best-selling authors are a prime example of this fact. Hence there can be no universally valid "dramaturgy," no suspense curves that only work when placed just so. It's a fact that if you were to collect "surprises' systematically like so many stamps, you would certainly learn a lot. It' surprising to discover that the real ringleader of a gang is really the butler. It's equally surprising to discover that the halfwit brother of the king is the real mastermind (as practiced in an Asimov novel). But is there a formula you can use to create surprises? If you want to lay a good foundation for surprises, weave several plot lines and/or major characters into your story so that you have a wide range of options to surprise your readers. A one-track plot is hard to lead to a surprise. You can even quite literally lure the reader into a trap. What you do is you introduce a plot line or character that has been conceived expressly for no purpose other than to fool the reader into thinking he knows that this is the one that will lead to the climax, to the surprise. On the sly, so to speak, you build an unprepossessing plot line that proceeds to the true twist, to the real surprise. The sci-fi author Isaac Asimov is the king of this technique. He loves inserting an unprepossessing character into the plot who he gradually draws into the center of attention, but who no one would ever believe to be the mastermind in the story. This unprepossessing character often accompanies the hero through his adventures. You would never think that he is the enemy. The human inadequacies that this companion contrives to display act to conceal the fact
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that he is the true enemy. Asimov includes a "secret" plot line that is not only entirely "open," but is utterly removed from the reader's scope of interest due to its unprepossessing quality and to the fact that the reader always believes he knows how the plot will end. This is an old detective story technique. The classic example is client X of detective Y, who is supposed to find murderer Z. In the end, you discover that the client X is really murderer Z. You could call this a "super twist" or a "mega-switcheroo," if you're feeling giddy. But only by introducing circumstances that initially make the real ending logically improbable will you be able to use this technique professionally. The reader is bound to follow logical paths; however, the writer is the master of logic and can bend it to suit him. The principle of the surprising twist can also be used within a story. More often than not, authors will cause the plot to shift directions within a story and not just at the end. There are evidently such things as worn-out plot lines. It's a good idea to avoid these apparently "logical" lines.
I could illustrate my point with further examples of surprises or more suspense techniques. I could perform incisive analyses and point out that, almost without exception, contemporary best-selling authors serve up a slewof surprises. But
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I think that you've gotten the message. The important thing is to watch and read good pieces, to analyze the fundamental principles behind them, i.e. to filter out the suspense curves. These can then be abstracted. The specific can be used to work back to the general. You can derive various concrete applications from a general suspense technique and use these applications to build suspense into a story. Perhaps there might even be more discoveries waiting to be made in the area of suspense techniques. Investigating and researching the subject would certainly turn up some useful results. From up close, we can see that each best-selling author has his or her own best-seller formulas and his or her own repertoire of techniques. For that reason, it would be a fascinating exercise to research the Bible, the Bhagavad-Gita, the Tao Te Ching and the Koran, holy books all, in search of techniques. But an investigation of those best seller that stirred the world and have survived for several thousands of years could only be performed from the standpoint of researching literary technique. It should not be a blasphemous undertaking. It's conceivable that more effective authorial secrets might be brought to light in this way; more techniques than you could devise in an entire lifetime.
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V. Success Formulas For Best-Selling Authors
Permit me once again to promote myself. As I mentioned earlier, I have written about 100 books and it would be safe to assume that I know a thing or two about the subject. Even the harshest critic has to admit that I have learned something about non-fiction as well, if only accidentally. I could go on and on heaping praise on myself if I weren't so afflicted with modesty. Of course I developed my own personal "credo" long ago. For a time, I gave seminars on this subject that helped several up-and-coming authors to write good or better non-fiction. Non-fiction, I might add, that well-known publishers are selling now. I also work with a team of authors on a regular basis in order to complete extensive projects for a publishing house. "My" authors expect me to tell them how to write smart, readable, outstanding non-fiction books, books the reader loves and which, above all, sell. In the course of my career I have developed certain know-how, which, if used properly, enables writers to produce best sellers in a reliable fashion. This is my own personal credo, of course. I'm not pretending to have developed a cure for cancer, nor am I claiming to have developed the only way of writing in which salvation is to be found. But I am claiming to have created a method that can help you gain ground and lay the groundwork for a highly successful writing career. What ought to be gleaned from this is that there are many success formulas for non-fiction sellers. I will be introducing some of them at the end of Chapte V. It will, however, be easier to understand them if I begin by discussing my method. This will give you a kind of fixed point of reference. But first would like to draw your attention to a very remarkable circumstance. Embittered critics will always claim that it is flat-out impossible to isolate success formulas. They'll use terms such as "cliche" or "same old line." The will pooh-pooh the entire venture from the very beginning. But they are wrong about this. Entire publishing blueprints, series blueprints for books, are basec on formulas. In other words, publishers and editors are constantly brewing up clever ideas and blueprints for a series - all the while insisting that successful
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formulas be consistently maintained. It's a bizarre situation when you have to emphasize the fact, but of course there are success formulas. Canny entrepreneurs don't operate any differently. They observe attentively to see what works and then seek to establish what will guarantee success. Critics who proclaim that there are no success formulas are the grave diggers of success. Claiming that these formulas do not exist is just as flawed as trying to persuade people that flourishing companies or successful authors don't exist. It goes without saying that you can't compare' success formulas to a mechanical apparatus. They are not a perpetual motion machine. You shouldn't allow any formula to squeeze or force you into a mold. Professionals juggle formulas playfully. They don't worship them. But they do perk up their ears whenever they hear about the successful actions of other writers. I should first mention here that I use a whole tool kit of know-how to write good non-fiction books. This treasure box of mine is full to the brim with the tools of my trade. Interestingly enough, success in non-fiction has a lot to do with your personal attitude. For that reason, I recommend assuming a certain attitude towards books and language. Allow me to take a bit of a detour to illustrate this point. Can you imagine that attitudes alone can prevent people from making money? I mean pure ideas about themselves, about their "environments," and about others. It's a remarkable discovery that specific attitudes can get between you and the solid financial footing you want to achieve. If you start out cultivating the opinion that money is something negative and repulsive, you can rest assured that you will die penniless. Knowing that you are partially the product of your own views can work wonders. What does this have to do with the topic at hand? Well, if you want to become a successful author, first you have to check your own attitudes, views and mindset. Through my own experience, I've learned that the importance of this can't be overestimated. Let's plunge right in and take a look at this controversial material.
1.
Intention as a Secret Weapon
Fabulous! You want to write a book! You want to sculpt it so elegantly that it can't help but become a best seller! Is that what you really want? Really? Do you know what is, without question, the most important thing for a professional writer? You have to have the true and honest intention of transforming that book into a best seller! A writer who doesn't have that intention doesn't
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deserve the title of author. Interestingly enough, this been promulgated. So once more - the right intention To understand the "intention" factor properly, you there are thousands of false intentions concerning being an author might have the intention of
fact has rarely, if ever, has to be present. have to understand that an author. For instance,
(1 ) having a nice, comfortable job with money pouring into her bank account every month on a regular basis. (2)pursuing her favorite hobby, "since I always have loved books." (3)giving herself an intellectual touch by occupying herself with "literature." (4) ... You can complete this list yourself1 By the way, the fact that these intentions have been enumerated on this page doesn't mean that you shouldn't become filthy rich, be intellectual or read books. It only means that you should first have the intention of producing a best seller. You see, if the book doesn't sell well, the publisher loses money. People who produce low-quality books are systematically cutting off the branch they are sitting on. Do you know how many publishing houses are established each year and how many of them go bankrupt? No? The start-ups are legion. But I have been told that over 80 percent of them are forced to declare bankruptcy in this highly competitive market. Authors (and editors) are also responsible for this!
They suppress sales by
•
producing books that aren't tailored for the market and don't sell for lack of a target audience. Or by • sloppy proofreading and • formulation of a boring and unwieldy table of contents
There might be a thousand other reasons. All the weak points can be boiled down to one thing, however. There was no intention of producing a best seller. It's true that many points have to be "worked out" in order to produce a best seller.
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(1) The author has to have delivered a high quality book. (2)The editor has to have done outstanding work. (3) The cover has to be right, as do (4) The title and (if included) the subtitle( s). (5)Advertising is a field unto itself. (6)The salespersons must show commitment. (7)The public relations work must be professionally done. Furthermore, the correct publishing house has to be selected, etc, etc, etc ... But keep in mind that nothing creates its own momentum like a book. There are examples of books which were subjects of untold newspaper articles and which had been drowned in millions of dollars in advertising money and flopped. On the other hand, there are myriad examples of books published by companies with sparse advertising budgets which were barely promoted at all, but which received such good press and word-of-mouth that the publisher couldn't keep up with the orders. Good books possess their own momentum. When they don't sell well, authors and editors should never seek refuge in excuses such as: • The publisher's PR work was lousy. • The publisher didn't hold up his/her end. • Sales/distribution/advertising were worthless,
etc.
In fact, both the author and the editor are responsible for a book's success. If a book is a waste of ink, even the most brilliant PR manager won't be able to transform it into a hit. On the other hand, an advertising professional can whip up such a frenzy around a book that it jumps up to best-seller status. But that is only if the book can stand on its own merits. The intention of the author is of paramount importance. His or her intention has to be to produce a best seller. This means, in concrete terms, that you should examine your own intentions as an author. Do any and every conceivable thing necessary to turn your baby into a top-notch book. After all, the publisher's success is your success. Only allow potential best sellers, your very best works, to leave your shop. Your books must be right in every department. For example: • •
The blurb on the back of the book, a.k.a. The table of contents.
the "fourth cover page."
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• •
The diagrams/illustrations. The cover, the title, the subtitle(s) and maybe the teaser on the front cover. If you claim that this isn't part of your job description as the author, you might be right as far as the publisher is concerned. But I'm talking about an attitude here - okay? You could probably write 1,000 books about the job of being an author. The mere question "How do you create excellent titles?" is fascinating in and of itself. And the answer is quite simple - study excellent titles of other books. Which titles seem to draw you in? How are they written? Look at it all from the point of view of producing quality books. Collect good titles. The world is chock full of books and best sellers, but no one seems to be taking a good look at them. You see that you could be tempted to drown in thousands of details. But the salient point continues to be that you have to have the intention of producing a best seller.
2.
My Own Individual Credo
Profound consequences follow in the wake of the attitude that accompanies the intention to write a best seller. As the author, you will no longer care if you work two years or two weeks on a book. It's no longer an issue whether you receive $8,000 or $80,000 for a manuscript. In saying this, I'm not trying to prop up cutthroat publishers. I merely wish to emphasize how essential enthusiasm is to successful authors. Their concept of quality is so high that all other questions are relegated to the back burner. They give their all! Let me tell you a story about Kirk Douglas that is related to this topic. In September 1958, Kirk Douglas threw himself headfirst into the huge adventure film, "The Vikings." This project carried an enormous financial liability for him, as he was a producer as well as the leading actor. When the movie was completed, he sat down to watch it and was unbearably disappointed in the results. At length, he pulled himself together and announced, "I can't fool my audience - we have to re-film everything!"!' He produced the entire movie again, risking his fortune, taking out a mortgage on his house, investing his own paycheck and enlisting the help of his family. He scraped together another two million dollars and produced the wildest, most gruesome and, at the same time, most beautiful adventure movie 11
Cf. Jacques Seguela. Hollywood Waseht Weiser. Landsberg. 1982. p. 117.
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imaginable. It was a resounding success. The movie packed in the viewers in droves and poured enough money into Kirk Douglas' pockets to cover his original investment several times over Do you understand what I'm trying to express here? The man was only interested in quality. He didn't give a damn about the money, even though he ended up earning several million dollars on the project. But he was focused only on his audience. He was obsessed with the idea of producing an incomparably good movie, full of emotions that caused people to laugh hysterically and weep with joy. He concentrated exclusively on the result. Now it's time to return to and investigate the question I posed at the beginning of this book - "what is quality?" I've already given a partial answer by listing my suspense techniques. They define what I consider to be quality. You see, quality might not be clearly defined, but there are different definitions of quality and it's up to you to hammer out your own definition of quality. I know that it's just plain bizarre, but there truly is no codified material on the writing "job." But don't let yourself be led astray by that. You have to insist on setting your own standards and reaching your own level. It goes without saying that I can't set this standard for all authors in all eras. Too many have foundered in this morass and I for one don't want to join the ranks of those who have fallen off this tightrope. I can only convey to you what I consider to be quality. Let's turn our attention now to another salient point. Why does a reader read a book? If it's a mystery, he wants to tremble with suspense. As an author, you should want to hook and bind your reader to your book. He shouldn't want to put the book down. The next important point is that suspense is essential in a non-fiction book as well. That's why I believe that information should be carefully prepared, delectably packaged and pleasantly offered to the reader. This will ensure that you interest the reader. And if you manage to do that, success is yours. Many experts could not tell you what to aim for in writing a non-fiction work. It's quite simple, in fact. The reader has to be fascinated by the book. You see, all the drivel out there on the intellectual qualities of a book is misleading - intellect vs. emotion, spirit vs. mind. These aren't necessarily opposites. Of course you have to hook the reader. Build him up, make him feel better about himself. And then he'll recommend the book to his friends. There's nothing wrong with researching meticulously, giving good advice and handing out invaluable tips. But you have to draw in your reader, damn it! A reader who feels bad after reading a book is certainly
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one who won't recommend it to his friends. There's a reason why so many non-fiction best sellers are so full of optimism. In terms of constructing a book, this means that, for every four positive case studies you cite, mention only one negative one, and then only to demonstrate a positive point. Do you understand what I mean? Once more - the result, the aim of a book is to make people feel better after they read it. The best way of doing this is to build the reader up, to hook him. The emotional side of things enjoys far too little attention in the field of nonfiction. Naturally, the information has to have a solid basis in thorough research so that the reader can learn it. The figures and the facts have to be right. But presenting these facts effectively is the issue. Is there enough humor and enthusiasm in the book? Does it make you laugh? Grin to yourself in amusement? Or admire a businessman's intelligence? Yes? Fantastic! You've built up the reader. She feels better, My own personal guideline is that the reader ought to be "excited" at least once per page. In doing this, I keep her glued to the page, keep her reading on. I cultivate a complete customer service attitude. As the author, I am my readers' servant. I want to build up the reader, make her squeal with delight! She ought to be enthralled. She should see new perspectives that she had only dreamed of previously. I have to tear her from the fetters of the banal and the mundane. It has never been said this clearly before. Even a good non-fiction book has to be gripping! Writing a good non-fiction book requires just as much commitment and energy as writing a mystery or a science fiction novel. In my role as the author, I constantly try to covey something positive to the reader. Thus, I pursue the goal of any and every good artist. I want the reader to feel better, to be better. In this aspect I feel more akin to a rock singer who whips his audience into a frenzy than I do to a boring, spaced-out professor whose masturbatory, introverted scholasticism keeps him from seeing his audience through his coke-bottle horn-rimmed glasses. I write for the audience, not for myself. It is of no import how wretched I might be feeling or whether the best wife in the world just left me. The reader doesn't give a damn about it. I write for the reader and only the reader. While she holds my book in her hands I offer her a piece of sunshine, success and entertainment - the sweet things in life. She rewards me for doing so and buys my books. Sometimes she will use
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the tips and tricks I reveal to her, sometimes not. One thing has to be made clear, though, I can't turn her life around with one book. But I can damn well make sure that she feels better for a few hours or a few days. Bland, listlessly prepared facts are guaranteed to send your reader off to dreamland. Tips he can get anywhere and that are not news to him bore him to tears. It's said that some readers have even died from boredom in the midst of reading a real snoozer. The art consists of spicing up topics that are bland by nature. But the great thing is that there are no boring topics. I can name at least ten of my books with seeming yawners for titles that became best sellers. Example: How To Start Your Own Real-Estate Business . .That title is enough to make you feel like taking a long nap. At first glance, you tend to assume that this book was written for a tiny target group. But the book was penned to be as exciting as a mystery. It was spiced with real life stories. I described what happens when you purchase real estate next door to a brothel. I pumped the pages full of life, juice and power. And before I knew it, I had written a book that, according to the managing editor, beat all the sales records that had ever been set in that publishing house. And it continues to sell well to this very day. I could list a thousand and one more examples to try to convince you. But believe me, please, I beg you, "if these delights thy mind may move," as a great English poet once said - add some spice to your non-fiction. This involves rising above the masses and sifting out the apathetic blah-blah-blah that rains down on your ears every day. It involves hunting down the unusual. Use entertainment and humor. As the author, it's your responsibility to prop up, even to supplement and underscore all opportunities to travel down this path. You have to weave funny, vibrant examples into your book and banish destructiveness, negativity and apathy from your mind. This is a success formula that can rake in millions.
3. The Non-Fiction Book, At Your Service Let's talk about another attitude that is of extreme importance if you want to write non-fiction sellers. It's news to no one that companies that provide real service blossom and flourish. Although this may be old news, the service success formula still works. A company which sees itself as a service enterprise and which honestly and truly does everything for its customers will barely be
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able to save itself from the onslaught of new customers. It's just that simple. This truism can also be applied to the publishing industry. It's an excellent idea to do everything conceivable to offer a true service to your readers. They'll repay you by recommending your work to people they know. So what do I consider "service" to be in non-fiction? Let's get down to the nitty-gritty: (l)First and foremost, I try to write clearly. That doesn't mean that I stoop down to the lowest common intellectual denominator; on the contrary, a certain standard should always be maintained. But standards don't mean that your readers should lose their way among a labyrinth of ten-dollar Latin and Greek words. For example, I prefer to use a vibrant word over an unappetizing scholarly one. Juicy, vivid words often have a high emotional resonance. An idiom that expresses something visually is more valuable than an arcane, professorial paraphrase. What is more, standards are nor established by huge dung heaps of obscure words. (2)Service also means that I summarize the important points at the end of each section, if the subject matter is complex. This gives the reader the opportunity to review my material at a glance. Here are two examples to illustrate this technique. Example No.1: Ha. A. Mehler, Ernst Haible. MONEY, More Wealth, Lower Taxes. This is one of my best sellers. The first section is dedicated to the topic "Gold - Up Close & Personal. After 30 pages, the reader will be a little overwhelmed with all the information. Knowing this, I provide all the facts "At a Glance" in an easy-to-understand format. Read for yourself: At a Glance Gold Up Close & Personal: Bullion Coins Medals Advantages of gold bullion: Best investment value in crises Stable investment Internationally valid, accepted everywhere
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Can never be devalued (price can vary) Gold is discreet and sheltered from the reach of the authorities Highest value in the smallest space (after diamonds) Gold has a small premium, i.e. the discrepancy between purchase and sale prices is smaller than for most other investments. Weights: 5g, 109, 20g, 3Ig, 50g, lOOg, 250g, 500g, lOOOg, 12.5 kg. The most common sizes for investors: 109 to IOOOg. New bullion has the weight marked on it. A certification verifies the weight of older bullion. Using carats to calculate:
24 18 14 8
carats carats carats carats
= =
1000/1000 75011000 585/1000 33311000
(pure gold) gold gold gold
The first questions before buying coins: Who issued the coin? Is the quality guaranteed? Is it are-issue? Is it a restrike? What is its condition (for older coins)? For our purposes, we distinguish between: (I ) Numismatic coins (collector coins, struck before 1804. Criteria: rarity - age - condition - beauty) (2) Semi-numismatic coins (collector coins, struck between 1804 and 1850, easier sold than numismatic coins, since more plentiful) (3) Regular coins (certain types of silver coins that act as currency) (4) Bullion coins (Maple Leaf/Krugerrand) (5) Other gold coins Bullion coins include - Maple Leaf (struck in Canada) Krugerrand (South Africa)
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The purchase price is equal to the metal value. The agio (premium) for striking costs is relatively low. At present, it stands at 5% to 6% for the Maple Leaf, 3% for the Krugerrand. Until recently, the ratio of Krugerrand to Maple Leaf was 4: 1: Maple has caught up, putting the current ratio at 1: 1. The most important gold coins (after the Maple Leaf and Krugerrand): 20 Marks (German Empire) H 20 fr Vreneli (Switzerland) 20 fr Napoleon (France) $20 Double Eagle (US) 100 Austrian Coronas A distinction is made between former circulating coins and officially issued restrikes based on these coins. Restrikes are issued with old dies and occasionally with new ones. They are traded at the same price as the original coins. Examples of official restrikes: France: 20 Franc coin Great Britain: Sovereign Mexico: Peso Austria: Corona, Ducat, Florin Spain: Pesetas Switzerland: Vreneli Turkey: Piaster Condition of numismatic Proof Uncirculated Extremely fine
coins:
Let's review the facts. The chapter on gold deals with a relatively complex subject. The reader gets pumped full of information. The subject matter was compact and dense. Despite the fact that I had made an effort to keep my tone
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convivial and entertaining throughout the text, I was aware that the reader would have some problems digesting everything. So I put myself in the reader's shoes. I took up his perspective. That's the secret. I then followed up by serving him the truly important information in tasty, easy-to-swallow info-bytes at the end of the chapter. That's service! Example No.2: This slim little volume is entitled The Correct andSuccessful Job Application. I knew the reader would be groaning after about 15 pages of nothing but text had been tamped into her brain. So I offered her a brief little summary. Read for yourself.
At a glance: 1. Job applications could also be called "packages." prepare them carefully.
It's a good idea to
2. Applications consist of: (a) Letter of introduction (b) Resume (in the form of a table or an essay) (c) Copies of certificates (d) Certificates for summer jobs, internships, classes (e) Writing sample - if requested 3. Letter of introduction: Don't rely on obsolete customs. Avoid stock phrases and awkward phrasing. Write fluently and naturally. Try to draw the reader's attention to the positive points in your application. 4. Resume: It has to contain the applicant's personal information in the form of a table or an essay. It can and should underscore the applicant's special knowledge and skills. 5. Certificates: quality.
Never send originals, but make sure the copies are high-
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6. Certificates for internships, summer jobs: Including these papers is important and helpful, particularly for first-time job applicants. 7. Package your application so that it is attractive and easy to read. Put it in an envelope with a typewritten address and place enough postage on it. Send it off in time. This book is geared towards a young clientele. In the text, I made an effort to use youthful, simple phrases. I also summarized all the complex information at the end of the chapter and recommended to the publisher that "At a glance" be printed on a gray background to set it off from the remainder of the text. (3)1 usually try to include drawings and/or caricatures. They loosen the text up. It's hard to understand why publishers don't avail themselves of this prop more often. After all, no publication records sales figures as large as comic books. And nothing teaches you more easily than pictures. Again, my idea of offering customer service is what's behind this decision. Here are two charming examples. First a caricature from my book The Correct and Successful Job Application. 12
You be the judge. of a new job?
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Is that not a hilarious caricature of an applicant in search
The Correct and Successful Job Application.
Munich: Heyne Verlag, 1988.
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Example No.3: Caricature in the chapter "Securities" from the book MONEY, More Wealth, Lower Taxes. 13
Stock exchange
index
This caricature by Erik Liebermann illustrates the profitability of stock. Can you offer your readers any better service than this? At times, I even go so far as to recommend what the caricatures should portray. In other words, I provide the visual ideas and don't give a damn if this is "my" job or not! Sometimes I even pay caricaturists out of my own pocket, even though my contract doesn't require me to do so. Get it? I want to offer a best seller and top-quality service! My book Money sold 20,000 copies in the first month. Do I need to add anything to that kind of number? (4)Some business publishers go so far as to provide the telephone numbers and addresses of contact people at the point in the text where tips and advice come into play. This saves the reader time and money and she rewards you for this accordingly. Some publishers keep the phone numbers updated to provide true service. Why has no one come up. with the bright idea of examining all the various publishing strategies and ideas from the customer service standpoint? Or hire someone to come up with new ideas for improving customer service in books?
I)
p.
Mehler, Ha. A. Haible, Ernst. 368.
MONEY. More Wealth. Lower Taxes.
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(5)Case studies and success stories can be used to demonstrate a principle. This type of example, integrated into the text, combines several benefits in one package: - It breathes life and applicability into a book. - A success story generally raises your reader's spirits. - Its entertainment value is generally considerable. (3)1 have no doubt that there are thousands of additional examples of how to put the concept of customer service into practice. But I think you understood my attitude. If the reader is treated well, he will reward me for it. And I know that I'll get to see him again and that I'll be a welcome guest in his house. He will refer his friends to me.
4. How Many English Languages Are There, Anyway? Let's turn our attention to a highly explosive subject - language. You see, some of our contemporaries preach that you shouldn't use the words "fart," "piss" or "burp". They tell you that words such as "shit", "dumb-ass" and "asshole" are taboo. They blather on about how indecent it is to use certain obscene words if you want to maintain a certain standard. But let's take a closer look at this whole issue. These demands ban language. They imply that a certain language must not be spoken or written. They oppress language. The truth of the matter is that if you listen to people talking, you'll discover that they actually talk that way. And you'll see that the language is incredibly communicative. A William Shakespeare or a Geoffrey Chaucer would never have had such an impact had they not also spoken obscene English. Gutter English. Toilet English. These languages are just as important as "refined" English. Or Snooty English, if you will. The point is that there are just as many English languages as there are groups. But by not allowing certain things to be expressed you're really preventing others from communicating with certain groups. As an author, however, you have to speak all languages and be able to speak with every group. Admittedly, this doesn't have to become a pathological compulsion. You don't have to habitually wallow in filth like a pig. But there are situations in which these languages are appropriate. In which they're effective and productive. So never succumb to the idea that you must use just one language. Don't agree to sound "educated" or "well-bred. "
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Don't force yourself to show off your "good upbringing" and with it your membership in a particular class. In the same vein, you don't have to use gutter English obsessively. Instead, the name of the language game should be absolute liberty. Of course, that doesn't mean that you ought to shock your audience when speaking before a club of elderly ladies by using expressions of a coital or fecal nature. The high art consists of tailoring your language to suit your audience, i.e. being able to speak any and every language. The oldest trick in the book among American music superstars consists of learning one, two or three words in German before singing in Germany and then saying them as best they know how on stage. As you can imagine, the audience cheers them on enthusiastically. The trick works for the simple reason that the superstars are speaking the audience's language. So accommodate your language to match your audience's language. Needless to say, if you have a large audience, gutter language might not go over particularly well. But sometimes you'll be writing a play in which a villain plays a role. And, in order to characterize him adequately, you have to scrape some words from the bottom of the linguistic barrel. Let's look at this whole area. There are some who claim that a Texas drawl and Midwest twang are horrendous. And you should never, ever use them. People of this caliber are terrified of not making "a good impression." Any rule that holds you to speaking only "pure English" is absolute hooey. There are famous plays written in dialects. Poems and books have become best sellers for the very reason that they were written in a dialect. Okay? Even nonfiction books might be livelier if some examples are written in dialect. Let's continue going over what some "authorities" have mandated. For example, the so-called rules sound like this: "You "You "You "You "You "You
must not include French words in an English text. .. " must ensure that you write in impeccable English ... " should not write in the style of the 18th century ... " must ... " must not. .. " should ... "
Do you follow me? Everyone of these "rules" is nothing but a tool to oppress language.
They
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limit it. They belittle it. They ban words. Turn the tables on them. Never, ever, ever allow anyone to prevent you from using certain words. Communicate however the hell you want, as much as you want, be it colloquial English or advertising English. The other bland, boring stuff has been worn down and won't float anyone's boat. Speak every language. This will enable you to make use of all the layers of potential communication. You'll also stumble over the editor hurdle. Permit me to make a few remarks at this point. I've met a host of editors in my day. I know what I'm talking about when I discuss this type of person. It was my distinct pleasure to meet some fantastic colleagues - incredibly well-read, helpful, competent and intelligent professionals who had not become authors themselves by a mere twist of fate. But I've also met pathetic cowards who nervously wonder, "What will the publisher think of this word? What will the reader think? What will the critics think?" In other words, they dramatize the dreaded "what-will-he/she-think?" syndrome. The poor slobs! They delete everything that's truly edifying and gratifying. Humor doesn't exist in their world. Their lives are bland, boring, frighteningly pathetic existences. They live in panic, convinced beyond a shadow of a doubt that they're sitting on a ticking bomb that will go off at any second. They are cowards par excellence, poltroons who would even delete a harmlessly refreshing word such as "balderdash" from a manuscript. They quake to see that the author has used a loutish word, even though people love it, even though there are a thousand and one similar instances in literature that prove .that the way to make best sellers is to write plain English. Let's cite Chaucer, who loved using word such as "fart," "piss" or "arse", and who basically created a new language, if not a new culture. He couched his poetry in terms of reality, solidified it and dared to speak the truth. There are hundreds of superb examples of the power of direct, unadulterated language. It's powerful because people really do use those words. This kind of language appeals directly to them, seizes them immediately and strikes a chord deep within them. As I mentioned earlier, you don't have to force yourself to use a language that appeals to the lowest of the low. I'm talking about a language that's spoken, that's alive, that's understood, that forms an immediate bond with the reader. You have to listen to what people are saying! There are fantastic examples that illustrate how correct this approach is.
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For instance, the Egyptians developed a so-called "classical" language around 300 B.C. Intriguingly, this classical language was frozen by its own rules. However, one day some of the scribes revolted. They were all well versed in the art of wielding their pens - or, in their case, in the art of using papyrus and reed quills. Their writing was insolent, direct, rude. It erected no artificial walls between them and their readers. So what do you think happened then? Can you guess? They rose to become the next generation of best-selling authors of course! And that's not the climax of the story. Their fame grew and they became the new gods of the writing guild. The centuries went on; however, their language, this "modern," "aggressive," i.e. popular language became the "classical" language. Get it? These guys, who weren't afraid of sharpening their reed quills and writing as impudently as possible, were eventually touted by some pedantic Egyptian dorks as sacrosanct geniuses! These literary pontiffs of the Nile ordered every writer to bow to their linguistic edicts and imitate their predecessors mindlessly. Bizarre! This guild of bores, of cowards, of the Egyptian pseudo-intelligentsia knew absolutely, positively nothing. Everyone eventually agreed that there ought to be such an animal as neo-classicism. There was coincidentally, the occasional living genius among this crop of literary paragons, but they didn't receive the recognition they deserved. In the course of these events, the original Egyptian literary "wild men" were lionized to the point of becoming lifeless statues, their own graven images in whose footsteps everyone was obliged to follow. The succeeding generations of writers had to struggle against yet another form of "classicism. " They had to struggle and fight for a fresh breath of air. They weren't allowed to communicate, to talk, to speak or to create art. The aforementioned Egyptian intellectual undertakers held themselves out as the only ones who "knew" what art was. These art pontiffs gagged the geniuses among them and put as many stumbling blocks as they could in their path. This drama took place in the 14th century B. C. Let's be a little more "scholarly" and listen to the "original version" of this tragicomedy. Let's allow one of the most renowned historians of the United States to contribute to our discussion: "As in Europe, so in Egypt the language of everyday speech diverged gradually, at last almost completely, from that in which the books of the Old Kingdom had been written. For a long time authors continued to compose in the ancient tongue; scholars acquired it in school, and students were compelled to translate the "classics" with the help of grammars and vocabularies, and with the occasional assistance of "interlinears", In the fourteenth century B. C.
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Egyptian authors rebelled against this bondage to tradition, and the likes of Dante and Chaucer dared to write in the language of the people ... " "The new literature was realistic, youthful, buoyant; it took delight in flouting the old forms and describing the new life. In time this language also became literary and formal, refined and precise, rigid and impeccable with conventions of word and phrase; once again the language of letters separated from the language of speech. . . " 14 Why am I telling you all this? My dear authors, learn from this example! Learn that the spoken word, that colloquialisms possess tremendous power. And that dead authors aren't the only ones with brilliant things to say. And learn that timid bores rarely make convincing authors. Colloquial English has the advantage that it's understood and adored. And the reader appreciates it if a wordsmith pushes the envelope, goes flat out, adds desire and power, juice and spice to life and offers some nourishment to this intellectually poor, starving world. You have to be able to make bold statements and not carefully weigh each and every word that might cross that line between what is "allowed" and what is "banned. " Even non-fiction authors would be well-advised not to play the part of an academic. This short treatise is a plea for art! It's a plea for life! Recall that, when he was still a young man, Goethe made a name for himself with two scandalous works, The Sorrows of Young Werther and Gotz of Berlichingen. The much-quoted, sacred Goethe, these days a staple of German culture, initiated a literary revolution by describing a menage-a-trois in Werther, a revolutionary act in those days and a violation of "good morals. " It's a little-known fact that our dear Goethe often scrawled smut on the walls while sitting on the toilet. And let's not forget the famous Goethe quote: "He can kiss my ass!" This is now literature! A "classic!" The word "classic" alone evokes images of an all-girls prep school, of nicely pleated skirts and spic-and-span navy blue collars. I'm very sorry, but Goethe said, "He can kiss my ass!" Goethe. The prince of poets. There are undoubtedly a hundred other examples, but let's leave it at that. Read the revolutionary writer Schiller, who rebelled against the princes. Hell, read whomever you like. And think it over a hundred times before you creep up on a vibrant, gripping expression with a red pen in your hand. The spoken language will establish truth more readily, since it isn't afraid of opening old wounds and 14
Durant, Will. The Story of Civilization. Vol. 1: Our Oriental Heritage. New York: Simon & Schuster, pp. 178-179.
1954.
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calling a spade a spade. A crook is a "crook," a "gangsta" or a "thug." You should be able to dub a whore a "whore" and an asshole an "asshole."
5. Target Groups and Style Let's assume that you have complete and utter freedom to speak any and every language. Does that mean that you should behave like a pig? Of course not! Consider, instead, that entrepreneurs think in terms of target groups. And that's the right thing to do. If they fail to think in terms of target groups, they'll go bankrupt. If an author fails to think in terms of target groups, his books won't sell. Specifically, this means that the way you address your readers, your choice of words, all these things have to accommodate the target audience. The vocabulary used by authors of children's books differs radically from that used by writers who produce books for business managers. So think in terms of target groups. There are innumerable examples of how successful this approach is. In other words, all the hype surrounding "your own style" is, to an extent, misleading. An author should be a master of five, ten, even a hundred styles of his own. He should be capable of expressing himself so that the target audience understands him perfectly. Topics or phrases that some groups might find hilarious might make other groups burst into tears. It's not only the style that has to be tailored to suit the target audience - you have to trim the content and the message to suit your readers. Otherwise you won't get through to them. As an author, your intention ought to be to communicate, to reach a host of people. Otherwise, the title "author" becomes a misnomer. So acquire a wide range of different styles. And watch your target groups like a hawk. There are differences of class in language. Regional peculiarities. Intellectual English. Encyclopedic English. Newspaper English. Broadcast English. Quirks in business English. And so on and so forth. Make the effort, as an actor does, to play various linguistic roles. It's fun! Not only that, but there is a vast number of motivational techniques. You can motivate people by means of adventurous vacations, material assets, money, approval, recognition, social status, awards, gold pins, etc. There is a whole field of study devoted to analyzing motivation. To date, however, no one has stated in clear terms that one target group will react better or worse to different motivational techniques than another group. The conclusion to be drawn from this is that the appeal of different motivational
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techniques varies from target group to target group. To illustrate this point with a concrete example, studies reveal that insurance agents can be best motivated by means of the "money factor." An author planning on writing a book for this target audience must motivate by means of money and not by means of gold pins or awards. Conspicuous by their absence are exact studies and surveys performed with a view to uncovering how a given target group responds to the various motivational techniques. Such a survey would provide us with some indications of the framework to be used in order to attain the highest sales with a particular book. Quite plainly, this means that the field of non-fiction is still in its infancy. Knowing this, bowever, it remains possible to research and determine the "correct" motivational techniques and the appropriate style before putting pen to paper. Let's sum up the important points. Although it is true that the liberty of language is essential, non-fiction authors would be well advised to follow the example set by entrepreneurs and to think in terms of target groups. This is by no means a check on an author's freedom. Just consider it the smart thing to do. These two recommendations are not contradictory. Let's leave the slippery ground of personal opinion and turn our attention to the craft of writing, an area in which a professional can hone his skills to perfection.
6. Book Titles That Are Right on the Money As a general rule, non-fiction disciplines, such as
authors have to be masters of several sub-
(l)Having an idea for a book, or rather, several ideas that have been intelligently tailored to suit a potential target group or a market or a sub-market. (2)Being experts in creating titles, including subtitles and "teasers" for the cover. (3)Being able to research, i.e. gather data and facts, is another commandment. (4)Non-fiction authors have to be competent in organizing a pool of data into a structure that is easy for the reader to follow. (5)The skill of setting up an effective table of contents should also be part of their repertoire. (6)The book itself must be professionally structured and written to meet a
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defined standard of quality.
Everyone of these six steps is a field of study in and of itself. Let's take a closer look at them. First things first, the title is what makes or breaks a book. It's a source of no end of confusion that publishers have not established separate departments that are exclusively devoted to creating titles. (This is an exaggeration, but it's an important point). Six months should be set aside to fashion the title, but only three months to write the book itself. There is a whole set of techniques to be mastered in order to come up with the ideal title.
• • •
This consists of knowing basic rhythm techniques as well as alliteration. Furthermore, you should know something about the emotional value of words.
What should you know about rhythm? I'd like to begin by reminding you that there are reams and reams of incomprehensible technical expressions to describe rhythm. But these expressions may cause confusion and obscure the fact that this whole field is actually quite comprehensible. So here's' a good tip. All you need to learn to have a good grasp of the essentials are four poetic "feet." There's a difference between stressed and unstressed syllables. For example, the word "elegant" consists of three syllables, el-e-gant, of which the first is stressed - el - and the second and the third, -e and -gant, are unstressed. Stress is often expressed by means of a short oblique accent mark ('). Weak stress, on the other hand, is expressed using a half-circle facing upwards (?). We can use these marks to write elegant: el-e-gant. But let's get back to our four "feet." These are the four types to watch out for: (l)IAMB: = unstressed, stressed. For example: be-tween. Or mis-take, with the first syllable, mis, being unstressed and the second one, take, stressed. Other examples: in-deed, a-sleep, for-sooth. Simple - isn't it? That's iamb! (2)TROCHEE: This consists of a stressed syllable followed by an unstressed
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one. Examples: dy-ing, jag-ged, Phil-lip, win-some, hang-dog, cer-tain. (3)There is also a foot called a DACTYL. A dactyl consists of one stressed and two unstressed syllables. A mnemonic prop: the word "dactyl" is derived from the Greek word for "finger. " Now take a look at one of your fingers! A finger has one long and two short "limbs. " Okay? A finger consists of one comparatively long section and two shorter ones. So far so good. Now let's replace "long" with "stressed" and "short" with "unstressed. " So here's the pattern: stressed - unstressed - unstressed. So in cow-ard-ice, cow is stressed, ard is unstressed and ice is unstressed. Other words: par-a-dise, mur-der-ous, de-vi-ous. (4)The diametric opposite of this is the ANAPEST. In this case, the first two syllables are unstressed and the last is stressed. "All things count." Now it's time to slap these individual "feet," as the experts call them, together. For example: "Toss the tiger in the tank!" Hmm, what do we have here? Listen one more time - "Toss the tiger/in the tank!" Correct! Three trochees, i. e. three consecutive sets of stressed-unstressed. And we ignore the ending (tank). Here's another example: "You blocks, you stones, you worse than useless things!" is a ... ? Wait a second! "You blocks, you stones, you worse than useless things!" Here we have five iambs, including the ending. You can devise your own examples until you feel confident. Poetic and advertising texts aren't the only ones to use rhythms. Generally, iambs and trochees are placed one after the other to form complex rhythms. Trochees and iambs - a continual train of stressed and unstressed syllables - can be created with relative ease. It's also a good idea to use rhythms when constructing your tables of contents. It makes them catchier. How does it make them catchier? Quite simply because it provides a regularity, a repetition (stressed alternating with unstressed). Rhythm and repetition aid you in remembering the text, be it a pop song, a Shakespearean sonnet, or a non-fiction book. The funny thing is that you can describe the study of rhythm in incredibly complex terms. There's a multitude of elegant-sounding scholarly terms in various languages to express the fact that you can put three, four or five iambs together. You could spend your first two years at college just studying rhythms, even though the subject matter itself is simple. For us hands-on writers, the salient point is that any time a peak and a trough (for example, stressed-unstressed) alternate, this difference
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produces a rhythm, a regularity. Study good book titles from this standpoint. Just take any best seller-list, whether it lists non-fiction or fiction, and give it a thorough going-over. You'll discover a host of rhythms. Here's an example: A Hun/dred Years/of Sol/itude. Make good use of rhythms - in other words, regularly alternate stressed and unstressed syllables. Similarly, alliteration is a fundamental tool of the writing trade. But first of all, what does this fine-sounding word mean? Alliteration means that there is the same initial sound in stressed syllables. For example: Toss the tiger in the tank. "Toss," "tiger" and "tank" all begin with "t." "Toss," "tiger" and "tank" are all stressed syllables. In other words - the principle of repetition is made use of here as well. That which is repeated is remembered. Another example: Whether the weather is windy ... Students at acting schools often practice these kinds of sentences in order to hone their pronunciation. Authors use them to engrave the words into the reader's memory. Why is "Peter Piper picked a peck of pickled peppers" so brilliant? Well, "p" is repeated eight times, "k" three times and "e" four times. These are all repetitions. That which is repeated is remembered. Let's examine some best seller titles: "Test Training (two "t's"), Fortunes of Fear," (two "f's"). Old best sellers and long-sellers: "Gone with the Wind" (two "w's"). Dianetics, The Modern Science of Mental Health (two "m's"). You see, it would be naive to assume that all this is just coincidence, that the authors hadn't carefully crafted these titles down to the last minutiae. Of course, this doesn't mean that every author must use these rules when formulating a title. There are criteria that should rank higher than formal characteristics, such as content. However, if it fits, if it's useful, if it's feasible, this tool from the writer's bag of tricks can really work some magic. The last thing we mentioned was the emotional value of words. By this I mean the current level of appeal of words. Some words change their emotional appeal as time passes and/or become obsolete, while other words that had been firmly planted in colloquial English sometimes become elevated in status. For example, the word "professional" has begun to enjoy a higher level of appeal. On the other hand, some terms that enjoyed an extremely high status have acquired a negative aftertaste. Unfortunately, there are no institutes that conduct surveys to determine the emotional status of words, even though their emotional status can't be overestimated.
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Non-fiction is an area that lends itself to using subtitles. The Next Level might consist of selecting an enthusiastic, exciting title that trips lightly off the tongue and pairing it with a conservative subtitle that embodies the content of the book or tickles the fancies of potential readers. The title page is also ideal for additional tempting, promising phrases (in addition to the title and the subtitle) on, say, the left edge of the book. Never forget, a book title is nothing more than a promise. An appetizer. A foretaste of a drug called suspense, customer service, know-how and entertainment. The title squeezes the table of contents into a fistful of words and must be just so. If this arrow falls short of the mark, you've lost the battle. A particularly interesting phenomenon in the US is the jump in the number of "how-to" books, for example: "How to Live a Better Life. " In this title, the nature of promises is crystal clear. Another prominent trend is the tendency to use more colloquial-sounding titles. The work graphic artists do can often push a book over the top, making it essential that they be contracted with plenty of time to spare. Since this part of making best sellers is beyond the scope of this book, we won't analyze book covers from a graphical perspective. That's an art in itself. It would certainly be a rewarding project to write a textbook illustrating case studies of covers and their effect on books. You can't imagine the care with which true professionals select a title that's right on the money. Some real blood, sweat and tears go into them. Would you mind if we analyzed one of my titles, just for fun? Several years ago, I wrote a book on motivational techniques. 15 The final title and subtitle were: HOW PROFESSIONALS MOTIVATE THE MIGHT AND MAGIC OF TRIED-AND- TESTED TECHNIQUES
Our analysis reveals that I used the following techniques: I used the little word "how" because I had noticed that "how-to" books were growing in popularity on the book market. American authors started out in the pole position in this field and appear to have won the race. The word "professional" enjoys a high level of appeal, possibly as a resul of some popular movies.
•
•
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•
The repetition of the letter "0" in the title of "How Professionals Motivate" makes it easier to remember. Furthermore, there is a rhythm present in the title. • You can analyze the subtitle quickly: Might and Magic of Tried-and-True Motivational Techniques. There are three "m's" and eight "t's" (repetition). • In addition, the words might and magic provide an aura of mystery, or at least a certain attraction. • The little phrase "tried-and-tested" gives the title a respectable air and emphasizes the book's hands-on approach. You see the kind of practical considerations that go into the title! By the way, the book became a seller. In order to give the truth its due, however, a (good) title is not the only thing responsible for the success or failure of a book. If the book does not keep the promise made by the title, you've lost. On the other hand, the right title does mean that the book has a chance of becoming a best seller.
7. The Art of Research A truly exhaustive treatise on research would take up an entire .research techniques of a non-fiction author differ greatly from journalist, who has to have, say, special interviewing techniques cajole information out of an interviewee. Any comprehensive book would also have to consider the latest developments in databases. categories have been established in this area:
book. The those of a in order to on research Four basic
(l)numerical databases (only contain numerical values) (2)real-time databases (contain stock prices or the latest news, for example) (3)text-oriented factbases (the information and references are very terse and sometimes include numbers) (4) Full-text databases (contain the entire text of, say, newspapers and magazines) 16 Of course, databases are only one of many possibilities of gathering facts. It would be necessary to list the entire array of press offices, be it press offices 16
Cf. Wessenback,
Friedrich; Mehler, Ha. A. Barter. Landsberg: Verlag Moderne Industrie,
1987. p. 174.
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in cities, in the federal government or in public and private companies. Furthermore, a researcher's basic field of operations run the gamut from the Internet to libraries and newspaper and magazine archives. Entire companies focus on gathering specialized information. There are even people working as information brokers, gathering facts by means of the most diverse methods. So you see that I don't want to convey the impression that I'm planning on dealing with this entire field on a page or two. What I can do, though, is to tell you my success formula, how I go about gathering information: (l)If I really want to get myself up to par on a topic, I don't start by consulting books - I talk to an expert, preferably the expert in the field in question. If I can manage to interview the best specialist, I've already won the battle. Usually, she serves me all the material I need on a silver platter, all of it nicely packaged. In other words, I've just saved myself 95 percent of the work to be done researching the topic. This approach has the added advantage that I'm always up-to-date on technical goings-on. (2) Generally, my research partner and I lay down an exact schedule at one of our first meetings. This way, my partner knows when she needs to have what information available for me. This implies that there's at least a sketched-out table of contents to work with. I work with cassettes unless she doesn't like using recordings for some reason. In research, communication techniques are essential. That means that you have to keep your contact in a good mood so that she continues spitting out the information you need. It's an amazing fact that people who are in good spirits are just bursting with information. The art and duty of researching is to have at the ready a repertoire of techniques to "prime" a person. You have to be unobtrusive about steering your partner toward the truly explosive information, toward the information that you know or imagine would kindle a burning interest in the hearts of your readers. My standard repertoire includes these questions: - Tell me a genuinely fascinating story. Do you have any exciting success stories? - Can you tell me any humorous anecdotes? - What was it about that that affected you emotionally? - What was the most exciting or an exciting experience involving ... (research topic)?
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What do people only dare to whisper about ... in back rooms? Are there also hazardous situations in reference to ... ? When did you really start to sweat about. .. ? I also scout around for unusual anecdotes and valuable know-how that might have a bearing on my suspense techniques.
(3)1 dig deeper when I don't completely understand a word or a train of thought. How do you plan to write about so-and-so if you don't even know what it is? In addition, you have to ask your contact as many questions as she can answer. Squeeze her like a lemon. If your partner mentions that she has some more informative material, you have to insist that she write a short note to herself reminding her to bring it along to the next meeting. Perhaps she mentions ten or more brochures that she is considering bringing along. She needs a mental nudge to remember them. Likewise, other potential research contacts might be beneficial. It's a matter of course that I also provide service and establish trust when researching. I always remain loyal to my contacts, since I want to be able to come back one day and pose new questions.
8. How To Organize a Pool of Data Let's imagine that you've just dug up some excellent, first-class material. Mountains of files, magazines and little notes are piled on your desk, and you have another 89 ideas running through your head on what else to squeeze into the book you're preparing to write. What do you do next? What is the best method for organizing a non-fiction book? About 70 percent of the time, I rely on chronology as a method of organization. For example, when preparing to write How Do I Set Up My Own Naturopathic Practicer?" I put myself in the reader's position and sought to formulate a chronological plan of attack. I fashioned the table of contents to look like this: Chapter 1: Introduction ... Chapter 2: Job specifications and requirements for aspiring naturopathic practitioners (Am I cut out to be a naturopathic practitioner?) 17 Mehler, Ha. A.; Keppler, Hermann. How Do I Set Up My Own Naturopathic Practice? Bad Godesberg: Rentrop, 1988.
2"" ed. Bonn-
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Chapter Chapter Chapter Chapter
3: 4: 5: 6:
Training (Where are the best naturopathic schools?) What do I have to learn? (diagnosis .. ./therapy ?) The licensing exam (what do I have to know ) Starting my own practice (Where is the best place to open my practice?) Chapter 7: How do I get patients? Okay? As you can see, I put myself in the reader's position and analyzed his problem chronologically - and set up a logical table of contents. Another organizational method might consist of using place. If I were to write an essay on our solar system, I would probably begin by writing about the sun, then Mercury, Venus, Earth and Mars - all the way to Neptune and Pluto. Get it? Place can also form the basis of a system of organization. But don't forget that about 70 percent of the time chronology virtually begs to be used as the method of organization. Here's an interesting tidbit from my own personal experience that might help you as an author or aspiring author. When writing non-fiction books, 50 percent of the work consists of composing a structure that is logical and lucid, by which I mean not only the table of contents but also the logical structure within each chapter. The reader must always be able to understand why one statement is followed by the next. If your writing conveys a chaotic, haphazard impression, it will seem substandard. I could tell you no end of fascinating stories about how much anguish organizing material causes aspiring writers. Sometimes it's the sheer quantity of the material that delivers the killing blow. By simply knowing, however, that organization is 50 percent of the work, you're ahead of the game. So it's important that you start by determining the method you wish to use to organize your material. As we mentioned earlier, you can use chronology as a basis, but that's not an absolute must. By the way, this book, the one you're holding in your hands at this very moment, was also written, in part, chronologically. I put myself in the shoes of a reader who wants to write a non-fiction book and continued systematically. In doing so, I arrived at the sequence Title, Research, Organization, Table of Contents, etc. I jotted down a short checklist of all the steps to initial organization. are the individual steps:
Here
(1 )Place all the material you are planning on using on your desk. Also, take every thought coursing through your brain and jot them down on a piece of
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paper. Now you have every scrap of information out and at the ready. (2)Now cook up a method of organization that the reader can follow and write a temporary table of contents. (3)Experience has shown that you will occasionally have to turn your method of organization on its head while actually writing the book. The important thing, however, is that you first decide on a system to organize the material. (4) Take your mountains of material, files, books, magazines, interviews, etc, and allocate them to the individual chapters. This will cause your initially enormous mountain to shrink to, say, ten small mountains for a book with ten chapters. (5)Then turn your attention to the first chapter and organize it according to the same principle. Develop a method of organization for this chapter and set out a temporary sequence within it with, say, five main headers. (6)At this point, review the material, separate it and sort it according to these headers. I've seen authors seize up when trying to organize their material. The trick consists of carving this large task up into many smaller tasks. A ten-mile march might be grueling. Strolling 500 feet is not.
9. How to Compose an Effective Table of Contents We're moving along at an unbelievable rate! If 50 percent of the job consists of organizing the material, we've already gotten that one under our belt. You only need to design a snazzy table of contents (about 30 percent of the job) and the blurb (about 15 percent) and then write the book (about 120 percent of the job). But seriously now, how do you compose a good table of contents? Here's a good general way of setting up a table of contents: (1 )First, draw up the "naked" outline. In other words, write down all the content that should be covered in scrawny, bland words. Frequently, this is taken care of when you organize the material. (2)Now take these headers and re-formulate them more effectively. An example: For the manuscript How To Make A Fortune In Real Estate, I jotted down the following headers: 18
Kempe, Klaus; Mehler, Ha. A. How To Make A Fortune
III
Real Estate.
7'h ed.
18
ldstein: Mowe Verlag,
1995.
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• • • • •
FOR BEST-SELLING
Condominiums Tax-favored construction Purchasing models Annuities Foreclosures
These headers eventually • •
AUTHORS
models
became:
THE CONDOMINIUM: A BARGAIN WHEN ARE TAX-FAVORED CONSTRUCTION WORTHWHILE? • PURCHASING MODELS: A GOOD DEAL • ARE ANNUITIES A CRAP SHOOT? • SOLID KNOW-HOW FOR FORECLOSURES
MODELS
You see that I've draped some chic clothes around these naked words to make them really scrumptious to look at. I've more or less made these words up. Let's take a closer look at one of these headers. One chapter is called ARE ANNUITIES A CRAP SHOOT? Two considerations informed the way I phrased this title. First, I wanted to make the reader curious by asking a question. A question (that you know will be answered later) is always an incomplete cycle. But people 'generally tend to complete cycles. So the reader is forced to read the book if she wants to have the question answered. Second, the word crap shoot is a very vivid and interesting phrase. Of course, I know that a lot is associated with the expression "crap shoot" - a poker-faced man with a cigarette hanging from his lips; women in plunging necklines draped over the winner's shoulder; and the unbearable tension hanging in the air. No one knows if the next roll of the dice will bring riches or ruin. All this is what runs through a reader's mind when his eyes flit over the expression "crap shoot. " By this you see the kind of acrobatics a writer has to perform in order to draw a solitary phrase out of the dusty comers of his mind. Don't believe for a second that genius is what's needed to come up with this type of phrasing. Even the most sharp-witted professionals in the industry have occasional difficulties calling up the perfect phrase. You have to give your gray matter a
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nudge or two before everything is perfect. You would be well advised to invest extra time in composing your table of contents. It's your book's business card. It can never be professional enough. And if you want to cement a business relationship, you certainly wouldn't start by presenting your prospective client with a used business card, would you? If the title is immeasurably important, there's no doubt that the table of contents is equally so. Readers will often skim over it before deciding whether to buy a book. So it's a good idea to work in alliteration and rhythm. I always spend a great deal of time and effort crafting the chapter headings. They're the teasers that arouse the readers' curiosity. As such, they need to be very professionally written using all the tricks you can imagine. The readers should be bursting with curiosity and whispering to themselves, "That's right! That's what I've always wanted to know!" I sometimes spend a few days bent over a two or three-page long table of contents because it's more important than the entire book. Here's an example of a table of contents from one of my books.
HOW TO MAKE A FORTUNE CONTENTS
IN REAL ESTATE
Prologue I. The 1. 2. 3. 4. 5. 6. 7. II. On 1. 2. 3. 4.
7
State of the Union Secured income? .. How "Lame Paw" learned to run. When will the state go bankrupt? How (un- )certain are annuities? How to make inflation work for you The best way (not)to pay your taxes Rent is going up, up, and away
11 14 17 21 26 31 37
the Weight of your Wallet Credit and assets :.................................................... The art of making the right choice How to make money from dirt At the crossroads
43 50 52 56
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III. Into the Abyss: Your First Real Estate 1. 2. 3. 4. 5. 6. 7. 8. 9. 10. 11. 12.
Having comes from holding How to offset risks Ready to rock and roll? Communication: The key to success The art of reading between the lines in ads Assessing real estate - it's not magic How to appraise real estate Purchasing is a blessing How to finance Nothing like knowing how The right tenants Tips and tricks for a safe sale
61 65 73 77 81 84 89 93 96 101 104 107
IV. On the Path to Success 1. 2. 3. 4. 5. 6.
How much money can you earn? The condominium: A bargain The good deal: hunting for old real estate Hooray! - I've got my own house! Are annuities a crap shoot? Know-how for foreclosures
117 125 128 134 138 142
V. Real Estate Professionals 1. More with a multi-family unit 2. How to earn money "properly:" apportioned real estate 3. From sea to shining sea - doing business in the US 4. Supermarkets, castles, hotels: buying posh and selling elegant 5. How to earn $3 million in three months: real-estate development 6. How to organize sales 7. Big business: listed companies, limited partnerships, funds 8. The next level of financing
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147 159 166 172 177 182 187 198
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I have no idea whether you are interested in real estate books or not. If you are not a member of the target audience for this book, then it's my tough luck. How To Make A Fortuneln Real Estate, by the way, is one of my best sellers. I believe that I can attribute a goodly portion of the success my book has enjoyed to the manner in which it was written.
10. The Beginning is Half of the Whole Finally, finally, you can kick off. You can let your genius run wild. But how do you start, how do you kick off? Here's what I ordinarily do. The first chapter generally contains nothing more than an enthusiastic, exciting promise of what the book has to offer. It should fill the r,eader with hope that her questions will be answered and her problems solved. It's essential that you write this chapter in a constructive and positive fashion. The trick is to identify with the reader at the same time. In other words, you've got to speak her language, take up her perspective and look at the world from her point of view. Not only that, but the promises you offer up should be fulfilled in later chapters. Despite the fact that problems can be mentioned in the first chapter, it would be folly to overdo the gloom and doom. The first chapter is what hooks the readers and pulls them into your book. It isn't until the second chapter or at the end of the first chapter that real "problematical areas" should be tossed about. Regrettably, the bulk of authors can't build up suspense systematically. Can't breed any attitude of expectation. My introduction, which provides a glimpse of the book's content, has to be written to take your breath away faster than an Agatha Christie mystery novel. But it shouldn't let the reader in on all the secrets. It should only arouse hunger, whet her appetite for the book. It is my own personal ambition to formulate the first chapter to be sweeter than sugar. To be the ne plus ultra, the top banana. You have to lure the reader into your book and seize her. Of course, I operate with my suspense techniques and apply all the know-how in my power. To reiterate, the romance writer isn't the only one who needs to build up suspense and provide entertainment. Fill your non-fiction book to the brim with colorful, real-life examples. Work with stories and intersperse anecdotes throughout. Introduce inimitable types. Describe situations as a novelist would, Furthermore, it's essential to "sell" the information you are proffering to the reader. Feel free to inform her that "the .next few pages are a real treasure trove
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of. .. ," that "some tips are worth more than their weight in gold," etc. A good non-fiction writer conveys the impression that the reader is holding an exceptional book in her hands. The only catch is that your statements have to be true, of course. You can't afford to fluff your feathers and brag like a bodybuilder if your advice is questionable or lacking in substance. Another idea consists of assimilating "attention-getters." The phrase, "Listen up now!" is impolite, unless used in a humorous context or to generate enthusiasm. Here are some phrases that usually come off better: • • •
"You may be interested to hear that. .. " "Intriguingly, experts have proven beyond a shadow of a doubt that ... " "Something extraordinary happens whenever ... begins. "
These are some clever ways of reeling the reader into a book. author is thus a kind of intellectual siren whose compelling songs with hazily ecstatic imagery. The hitch is that you have to lead your the shores of paradise. Otherwise, she'll denounce you (and rightly braggart and a huckster.
A good resonate reader to so) as a
11. The Scale of Linguistic Skills A step or two further along the chronological path puts us smack dab in the middle of our non-fiction book with us scribbling away cheerfully. This is the point where we should ask ourselves, if we haven't done so already, whether you can learn the art of using language? In other words, is writing only the offspring of inborn talent? And is genius something to be genuflected to, while the remainder of the writing pack will never amount to anything? Experience has taught us that the air "up there" can get very thin and that real professionals are few and far between. On the other hand, respected scientists and researchers have discovered that even the greatest geniuses in history studied day in and day out. Studies have brought to light the fact that genius can be developed, that it's not merely the random meeting of a pair of chromosomes that determines how a person's life progresses. I am firmly convinced that you can improve and nurture authors to become better, particularly in light of my working experience with so many of them. In my experience, it's always profitable to take up the reader's point of view, to encourage positive, possible change. Keep in mind, however, that people, in general and in specific cases, move in: different linguistic circles. I once tried to develop a
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HA. A. scale reflecting the various levels of linguistic abilities people have. yourself:
MEHLER
Read for
SCALE OF LINGUISTIC SKILLS Levell:
Illiterate Can neither read nor write
Level 2: Able to read and write basic English Makes frequent spelling errors Has a very weak grasp of grammar Small vocabulary Level 3: Average vocabulary Average command of English Approximately 70% of the population on this level Level 4: Vocabulary Occasionally
uses vocabulary
from higher and lower levels
Level 5: Very large vocabulary Juggles words from many levels Frequently uses language to achieve an effect Level 6: Exceptionally large vocabulary Commands various and sundry poetic and rhetorical means of expression and learns new words on an ongoing basis Speaks the "languages" of at least 5 levels and/or different dialects His/her writing is gripping; possesses some acting talent Level 7: Full command over language Can invent words and create language Original phrasing Speaks and writes perfectly and astonishingly rapidly His/her own style and/or styles Best-selling author, high-level politician, high-level manager or similar genius
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One caveat, I have not the slightest interest whether this scale is complete or whether it needs to be tweaked here and altered there. It's solely intended to demonstrate that people function linguistically at different levels. While we're on the topic, if you wish to help an up-and-coming author to write a better book, the best place to begin is to find out where he is linguistically. So the best way to give some authors a leg up on writing is by patching up their most egregious spelling, grammar and expression errors. Then again, some authors are already functioning at such a high level that a few mental nudges suffice to propel them to the highest pedestal. As you can see, it's a thorny issue giving tips on the proper composition of the interior, the content of a book, since each author may be at a different level. One may deem it necessary to know how to cite sources. Another writer may encounter difficulties coming up with good comparisons. There's enough material here to develop an entire repertoire of techniques and methods. The huge unknown in this equation is the question of how advanced the author is. The ideal solution to this problem would be a truly outstanding writer's institute or a university for authors in which each student's level would be determined and a curriculum set up with the aim of allowing the aspiring author to make the most progress possible. This writer's academy would be the ideal answer to this question. It is my dream to one day establish something such as this at a lofty level. Training authors is an extraordinarily exciting undertaking. Authors and artists represent a wealth of inconceivable potential that is too rarely glimpsed.
12. Pitfalls and Downfalls - and How to Get Around Them Notwithstanding the fact that advice given on the style necessary for nonfiction books should be specific and individual, I would still like to draw your attention to some prominent pitfalls and downfalls. As I have worked with a substantial number of authors and have edited scores of books myself - and acted as the editor-in-chief for several works - I may lay claim to knowing some of the most popular sins among authors. These include problems of a linguistic nature and difficulties with craftsmanship in general. Let's begin with the more understandable ones that deal solely with the craftsmanship question. Editors and proofreaders continually stumble over the fact that: •
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Authors often do not quote correctly.
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Of course there's a wide range of possibilities of citing sources. In some publishing houses, writers have agreed to, say, not cite the date of publication, i. e. not to state when a book came out, but instead to list the publisher and the price. Excepting this kind of variation, here is the normal plan of attack: You cite: (l)the
author of the book, then
(2)the title of the book, then (3)the place of publication,
followed by
(4 )the name of the publisher and (5)finally the date of publication. For example: Mehler, Ha. A. How To Start Your Own Real Estate Business. Bonn-Bad Godesberg: Mowe Verlag, 1985. Pay attention to punctuation! Although you place a period after the author's name and the title of the book, a colon belongs firmly behind the place of publication and the only thing between the publisher's name and the date of publication should be a comma and a space. If the author is not listed, you write How To Start Your Own Real Estate Business. Bonn-Bad Godesberg: Mowe Verlag, 1985. (6)If it is the fourth edition, you have to include this in your citation. For example: Mehler, Ha. A. How To Start Your Own Real Estate Business. 4th ed. BonnBad Godesberg: Mowe Verlag, 1985. You have to gather the details (place of publication, year of publication, number of editions) yourself. (7)Furthermore, you have to list the page in a quotation. If you are quoting two pages or more, you write "pp. 12-13." By repeating the "p" you are indicating the plural.
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When quoting magazines, the format changes slightly. Instead of italicizing the name of the article being cited, the name of the magazine is what is italicized, while the title of the article is placed in quotes. For example: Roosevelt, Anna. "Lost Civilizations of the Lower Amazon. " Natural History Feb. 1989: 7483. Note that the page numbers are placed after a colon and need no "p. " or "pp. " to identify them as such. It's just a question of fairness to quote other authors properly. Not referring to your sources would be dishonest. Not only that, but it's also a sign of respectability and truthfulness to make clear references and cite your sources. After all, a text becomes more understandable when its statements obviously have substance. Otherwise, the reader will presume that they're mere opinions. In short, the academic method of citing works used is a welcome aid to writers, since the impact of a book or a text increases when the facts within have been backed up. If not, you're nothing more than a common thief who claims ownership of something that belongs to others. •
It's generally a good idea to avoid abstruse words.
Abstruse or obscure words are a sure means of keeping your reader from reading your book or text. But at the same time, they may be unavoidable, especially so when they are technical expressions that can only be paraphrased with difficulty or that describe a circumstance with such precision that any other word would be a hollow substitute. In this situation, it's essential to define the obscure word immediately and without hesitation, ensuring all the while that the definition doesn't contain another twenty expressions which only a handful of people know and which are, for their part, not explained either. In conclusion - abstruse words - yes, if necessary and effective, but explain (in simple terms) immediately. If you want to define the word "hole," don't write, "a hole is a unific, hermetic projection of nonbeing into hypostasis. " Write instead, "a hole is nothing with something around it." Definitions that complicate the subject at hand are worthless. Instead, definitions should be clear, understandable and simple. In general, what counts is the intention. The reader should be able to grasp the meaning of a word within one second, or at least very quickly. To put it more radically - in general, no one should write definitions if he or she does not harbor the intention of making the reader understand.
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To make the reader understand, you can use simplicity, illustrations and examples. Generally, a word has a fundamental idea or concept behind it. Once the idea has been understood, the word itself is understood. There is occasionally an "intention" behind a word as well. If you can transmit this intention to the readers, you're an ace of a teacher. I think you understand the point. Service should be the basic thought, the basic intention when it comes to writing definitions. •
Another common foible of authors is their inability to write vivid phrases. When elaborating on a concept, it's vital to be able to portray it as skillfully as possible. It might be possible to describe briefly a plan of attack for sentences:
(l)First write out a pale, normal sentence. (2)Then try to jazz up what you wrote with some ideas, colorful words or humorous examples. (3)Pore through dictionaries to sculpt your sentence more resonantly, more colorfully. Make it more interesting. Above and beyond the information contained in the sentence, it's a good idea to watch your style and usage. Let's talk facts now. When using nouns, take great care not to repeat them too often, thus tiring your readers. Synonyms are the solution. You find them in thesauri. But avoid adjectives or verbs used as nouns. Use adjectives liberally. But be careful! Don't overdo it! After a certain point, they become annoying. In general, idioms loosen a text up. Work with them! They add color to what you're writing. You can find many examples in special dictionaries. Listen to what people are saying, as Martin Luther did. This will open up unimagined opportunities. When using verbs, it's a good idea to use "vivid" verbs. Let's take a closer look at this point. Experience has taught me that juiceless, lifeless verbs are the largest chink in most aspiring authors' armor. What do the majority of candidates do wrong? Well, they use emaciated, boring, bland verbs! It's no news to anyone that you can play ping-pong with words, that you can juggle them, that you can make them do the jitterbug, that words possess momentum of their own. Solely with words you can capture
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the reader's attention - by using colorful, vivid, impressive words. Words are the musical instrument upon which the author plays his melodies. Granted, sentence structure, grammar, etc. are important. But words are at the top of the scale in terms of importance, particularly in comparison to grammar, since the latter can always be corrected. What does this mean specifically? Wherever possible, avoid such words as To be - (I) am, (you/we/they) are, (he) is To do - or To have. My own personal name for what these authors are suffering from is the "tobe-to-do-to-have-syndrome." The cheapest thesauri will provide you with alternative words. Other words to be used with caution are To go To see and To come. I will not tolerate this boredom any longer! There are truly very few exceptional cases in which I refrain from walloping, declaring war on, eliminating, exterminating, expunging, impaling and shooting these words. So please, help me string these words up on the gallows! •
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The basic intent of an author should be to prime a text to be interesting. One way of pepping up a text is to use comparisons. Before comparing a situation or a thing to another situation or thing, you should know what that something can be equated to. There are several possibilities: (l)Television programs lend themselves to comparisons. Example: To be as rich as the folks in "Dallas. " Refer to shows that are highly popular and thus easy to understand. (2)ln the same vein, allusions to current events can be of assistance. Currently relevant jokes or subjects lend themselves ideally to compansons. (3)Also, actors, athletes, politicians and celebrities who are currently "in" make ideal objects of comparison. (4)Comparisons that relate to ancient Greek or Roman culture or.to the Egyptians, Indians, Chinese, etc. are equally beneficial. Naturally, this assumes a certain level of education. Particularly popular as
HA. A. MalLER references are the Bible and Homer's Iliad and Odyssey, to cite the most prominent examples. References made to books and their content as well as references to book titles identify you as being "educated" and cause the readers to bow mentally before you. This might not be what you're aiming for, but it's essential to be able to evoke a kaleidoscope of images within a certain class of reader merely by citing one book title. (5)Comparisons from history are another option. If someone is eulogized as being as misunderstood as Galileo, that's communication. It speaks volumes. Therefore, history lends itself to similes. Someone can be as "proud as Caesar" and "as brilliant a strategist as Napoleon. " (6) There are as many variations on this theme as there are stars in the sky. Comparisons from daily life (for example, I liked that person about as much as I like my mother-in-law. That guy was as pleasant as a toothache). Communicate very well because everyone has experienced these things in real life. Comparisons that include humor techniques are, of course, the Next Level. Let's return to our error analysis: •
Another favorite mistake committed by non-fiction writers is that of not picturing an audience. Indeed, authors would generally be well advised to imagine a specific person to address. Address your reader directly, just as I'm addressing you directly and imagining that you are an actual person sitting in front of me who I'm trying to convey some lively, interesting information to.
•
One of the most common errors young authors fall victim to is to confuse tenses. In one sentence, the author scribbles happily away in the present tense before switching just as cheerily into the past tense. She jumps back and forth between present and past perfect, like a rabbit that can't decide which carrot to nibble on. This error frequently befalls the beginning author.
•
One device that is grossly neglected is the anecdote. The cute little happenstance. The little story that wriggles its way into the text and enchants the reader. Tell more stories! Anecdotal information. It's one way of winning readers over.
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• The Next Level consists of incorporating suspense techniques into your non-fiction. Many suspense techniques conceived for literature can also be used in the realm of non-fiction. Specifically, - recount unusual events/people/circumstances, - introduce heroes and protagonists, - portray the hero defeating an enemy and - heap more fuel on the flames of the passions, but only the positive ones. I could reiterate all twenty suspense techniques from Chapter IV, but let's get right to the point. Implementing these suspense techniques, these methods of capturing, maintaining and directing someone's attention to the future is dependent on the specific non-fiction you're writing at the moment and can't be generalized. By heeding these recommendations and avoiding these pitfalls, you'll be head and shoulders above the rest of the non-fiction clan. The best thing about it is that you can practice each of these individual points to perfection.
13. The Writer's Guild Let's put all the various groups of writers and pen-pushers under a microscope and examine them one by one. Let's begin with the "real" authors. Sociological studies established some time ago that the majority of our beloved writers (I include all authors of theater and radio plays, novels, short stories, mysteries, science fiction, fantasy, film scripts and non-fiction) are not particularly successful. In other words, there are no end of authors, but only a handful make it to the top and join such august names as Ken Follett, JK Rowling, Mary Higgins Clark, Michael Crichton, John Grisham and Stephen King, among others. The air thins out rather quickly at that altitude. Why? Many would-be authors get too wrapped up in their "genius" - even before they publish their first syllable. Many of these "misunderstood" geniuses haven't learned their lessons in the school of hard knocks and don't know that great authors worked in journalism, for example, before publishing their first book. I've often noticed a lack of experience and of the willingness to work truly intensively and tirelessly among aspiring writers.
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Besides this guild of "real" writers, there are three other large groups of pen-pushers: - copywriters, - journalists and - academics. Representatives from each of these four groups have what it takes to become good authors. But each group suffers from its own specific shortcomings that are partially the result of their professions. Let's take a closer look at each of them. Copywriters are talented and experienced in writing book titles and tables of contents because they are accustomed to producing writing that is short, effective and bold. I've worked with some on occasion and have even mentored a few of them. I know the area a little. Advertising copy is generally very well paid and is excellent practice for an author. I see no crime in writing good copy now and again. Some renowned figures in literary history have written advertising copy. The first slogans for the famous German sauce "Maggi" were written by the poet Frank Wedekind and if Shakespeare were alive today, he might be the head or creative director of a global advertising agency - who knows! As far as books are concerned, copywriters are not used to thinking in terms of overarching suspense curves. Their art consists of quickly and abruptly capturing the audience's attention and creating an immediate desire to purchase the product in question. In a book, however, you generally "sell" a hero or the characters or whatever bit by bit, unlike a product or services. Another danger for copywriters is posed by their tendency to obsess over details. Creativity techniques (Chapter VI) can remedy this problem. The second group in the writer's guild, and most likely the largest one, comprises our friends the journalists. As I myself was employed as a television journalist for five years, I learned the profession from the ground up. What can we say about the literary talents of this guild? There has been a great deal of severe criticism directed at journalistic hacks. Prominent minds have described them as muckrakers, as professional trouble makers who earn their living by spreading the suffering, horror, misery, the filth, malevolence, evilness and criminality of the world. It's not my intention to pass judgment on the moral qualities of the yellow press. For my purposes, I differentiate very sharply between "bad news" journalists, who shouldn't be lumped in with honestly committed, ethically motivated representatives of the journalistic species.
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Besides, I'm not interested in analyzing the world of journalism. More important to me is the technical, the actual writing aspect of journalism. Although it might be wise to learn from top-notch journalists, it's also a smart move for an author to know the weak points of the system. During my career, I've encountered many journalists who had to have a particular writing style exorcised out of them. What do journalists generally do wrong that an author should do differently or better? May I address you directly? (l)Begin by forgetting everything you've ever heard about the virtues of a critical attitude! Being critical has risen to the level of a disease. Much more important than that is the ability to understand, to be able to take up completely and totally another's perspective, to crawl up into another person and to look through his eyes and hear with his ears. The art of comprehension should be placed ten thousand times higher on the scale of values than that hollow, primitive, pseudo-intellectual "critical understanding" that often manifests itself in utter denial of any reality. Of course, there does exist .such things as constructive criticism, which ought to be dispensed very skillfully, if it's your desire to write a best seller. I myself place criticism, objections, negative or destructive comments, if they absolutely must be touched upon, at the end of a book so that they don't spoil the reader's mood. After all, I want to keep her at it, motivate her, give her sugar cubes, spoil and pamper her. A reader is a whiny, ill-tempered, badly behaved child who has to be constantly flattered, whose attention has to be held by any means possible. Or, to put it positively, the reader has a right to decent entertainment. A writer is thus a bit of a circus artist and a clown. He has to put on a good show and offer something to the reader for a few bucks. The reader demands knowledge, valuable tips, good entertainment, dapper, intelligent phrases, engaging comparisons and a little theater. So forget whatever garbage you might have heard about a "critical attitude." Provide real service. Do the polka with your words. Don't complain all the time. Don't be a know-it-all. There's a wonderful side effect to this about-face in perspective. I've actually seen journalists who, after having changed their writing style, began to write and live more happily. They stopped their never-ending hunt for the offal, the manure, the stinking filth of life. You know that it's possible to look through every mask of every person in every company and discover a vast array of fascinating, aesthetic, wonderful and refreshing qualities. For
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the love of God, why don't people emphasize the positive sides of things? The beautiful things in life? Who was it that dared to dub only nagging, destructive criticism "intellectual"? Why does it seem like the only way to say something intelligent is by spewing viciousness and evil? The truth of the matter is that you can be positive and intelligent at the same time. Therefore, try being constructive, supportive, encouraging and humorous. (2)Journalists decorating flowerpots.
generally write too objectively. They aren't accustomed to with garlands, throwing confetti around and setting out
(3)They write chapters that are much too short. Forced to write succinctly and densely by the various editors above them, they have problems filling up the 10 to 20 pages necessary for a book chapter - and that's with transitional text in place of space-gobbling headers. (4) What is truly important is the fact that journalists often don't trust their own talent. Contorted by the eternal criticisms of complainers and critics who are entrusted with "inspecting" the texts or articles and whose "improvements" often make a text even worse, a journalist's literary ego will collapse totally. In serious situations, his attitude becomes hyper-critical toward his own writing style, he immediately squelches any "flow," thinks a thought, immediately criticizes this thought and doesn't allow himself to be a genius, or, to be more specific, doesn't attribute any importance to his immediate thoughts. He denigrates himself. In his mind's eye, he sees the same know-it-all "old hands" who have always crushed any desire he had to write. Of course it's necessary to improve the form of your text. But you see, I go about it like this: Phase 1: The night before I plan to write, I make sure that everything is researched, that all the data is perfectly prepared and lying on my desk. Often, I even arrange the information I want to convey into a specific sequence. Phase 2: The following morning, generally between 10 am and 4 pm, I spew everything out of my pen, refusing to pause for hell or high water. Write, write, write. I don't correct a single syllable, not a single line, not a
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single spelling error. Doing so would cut off the flow, would cause me to obsess about details. Then every decent thought just goes straight to hell. This has the added advantage that I use a lot of colloquial expressions, which makes a text more colorful and appealing than, say, a dry, academic style of writing. After having written everything at a spine-tingling speed and having savored my genius, I see to some other things, say, make phone calls, grumble at the second-best wife in the world (the best belongs to Ephraim Kishon), look after my little son and bring in the mail. Phase 3: Late in the afternoon or in the evening, I correct the text. I work on improvements. Trudge through thesauri. Cross out. Expand. Never change the fundamental flow! During Phase 2, by the way, I am not available for anyone, neither for the second-best wife in the world, nor for my friends. I even banish the telephone from the room. You see that Phase 2, the actual creative phase, is incredibly important. Indeed, there has to be a desire to write. I actively chase away any thoughts of possible corrections to be made. I'm not about to let my own thoughts confound me! I don't want to torture myself! The eternal, continual fixer-type is a masochist. She obsesses - to the detriment of the writing flow and, therefore, of quality. And readers can sense when a writer is grinding her teeth, believe you me! So trust yourself! Relearn the joy of writing! Don't correct yourself constantly. Just write! It's the most beautiful activity in the world! Let's take a look at the last group - the "academics. " Is there such an animal as a best-selling author and an academic in one? I'm sure you've already guessed the truth. Only in the rarest cases do academics rise to become top-notch authors. A mere handful of academics, with "Ph. D." or, more impressively, "Professor" in bold print on their business cards, are actually capable of writing well and producing intelligent, readable, enjoyable books. There are some noteworthy exceptions, but these folks have managed to descend from the Olympus of academics and to venture out into the lowly spheres of the "common people. " They write what is termed "popular science" - and are not the less clever for it. On the contrary, they are much, much more intelligent because they speak their audience's language. If I want to reach a large crowd, I also have to use crude, juicy, onomatopoeic expressions and idioms. Indeed, colloquial language is so colorful, so vivid, so fantastic,
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that any scholarly language appears monotonous, pale and thin in comparison. Just listen to people talking in bars! The academic best-selling author is generally a lonely figure, because he has been instilled with various writing neuroses. Let's look at them under our microscope: (l)Warped by their education and training, academics are predestined to fail as authors. Our colleges and universities delight in cultivating the psychosis that everything has to be expressed in a complicated fashion, even the simplest information. That's a trap. Writing in an "educated" style means nothing more than being an intellectual linguistic contortionist. Never forget that these professors are often sad souls who have never really experienced life, who have never left the dusty back rooms of their libraries and have little, if any, hands-on experience. Despite the tons of theoretical knowledge they possess, by the way, they generally earn less than a quick-witted, enterprising person who purchases a Mercedes in Germany, drives it to the Middle East, to Syria or Jordan, unloads it, enjoys a nice vacation and returns home with an extra $10,000 and memories of an exotic comer of the world. My tip is this. Lose a little respect for these bookworms, these ivory-tower philosophers! They're not mean-spirited, only as boring and dry as a can of prunes. So avoid artificial complication! Your average college survivor will strive to complicate simple information, whereas a best-selling nonfiction author will try to simplify complicated information. (2)Academics pass through a system packed with theory. Being able to juggle obscure words is supposed to be proof of intelligence. In reality, it only reveals a fearful desire to be judged "intellectual" at any price. It goes without saying that anyone who constantly has to prove that he's clever most certainly is not clever. He's afraid. True knowledge doesn't have to hide behind imposing words. In fact, an excessive use of abstruse words is nothing more than an attempt to hide, a neurosis, a fear of being discovered, a bit of cowardice. Intelligence, wisdom doesn't have to hide behind words that no one understands and that no one can fathom. This impedes any form of communication and robs the writer of readers! There exists an unpublished confidential study which I would like to refer to at this point, since it focused on the actual vocabulary of the population at large. It came to the stunning conclusion that college graduates possess a range of
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vocabulary that is normally attributed to high school graduates, whereas the vocabulary used by high school graduates is generally limited to the range attributed to middle school students. This study reveals that, in spite of their apparent level of education, the majority of people move in extremely lowly linguistic circles. For practical purposes, however, this means that you, as a writer, have to use every iota of brainpower you have to write at an intelligible level - unless it's your desire to drive off your readers. That doesn't mean that your writing has to be drab and boring. What it does mean is that you shouldn't artificially force yourself to set a high standard by being complicated. (3)The same thing holds true for stilted grammar. Of course, you can derive a certain aesthetic pleasure from imitating the twists and turns found in the writing practiced by Georg Wilhelm Friedrich Hegel or Immanuel Kant. But the actual message is often thereby more obscured than revealed. More attention is paid to the form than to the content. These fellows could be styled academic poets who sometimes even believe that their own minds are as complicated as their writing. They are rarely successful. So if you're so unlucky as to have attended a university and still want to become a bestselling author, begin your career by swearing off complicated writing. (4) The obsession prevalent in the academic world to quote incessantly is, of course, another point that drives a real professional up the wall. Don't misunderstand me - there's absolutely nothing wrong with quoting properly. On the contrary, it's a question of being fair and decent, and I didn't include it in this book as an important point on its own for no reason. But this virtue is often taken to the point of intellectual suicide. It should never be used to the exclusion of developing your own thoughts. By cleverly taking cover behind recognized, renowned authorities and quoting "great poets and thinkers," some people actually believe that they're as sharp as a tack. Ironically enough, it's a relatively primitive skill, on a level with Neanderthals, who were also talented imitators. Compulsively quoting so-called authorities can destroy your own initiative, can grind your ideas to a pulp and denigrates you to the level of a parrot, regardless of whether the authority cited is a real authority or just one of those pseudo-authorities you encounter so often nowadays. You see, there is such a thing as true respect for geniuses, they should be crowned with laurels. I personally genuflect before them! Give
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credit where credit is due! But this disease of only being allowed to quote and never to conceive of new ideas means hara-kiri for the thinking person. Every ounce of vitality is snuffed out in the process. (5)Writing books requires a tremendous amount of human warmth. This quality could also be termed affinity. Affinity is an additional quality that determines whether a book has the stuff to become a best seller. However, affinity is hampered by the coolness common to academics, their distance, their pseudocritical airs. (6)The theoretical density is an additional problem that can be dealt with quite easily - by introducing powerful, real-life examples that balance out the theory. The bad news is that our entire educational system is a farce. The good news is that, as an author, you can transform all these weak points into strong points. Don't get me wrong, it's not my intention to get any academic's panties in a bunch. The issue at hand is a system that condemns potentially good authors to be unsuccessful. Incidentally, it's ignorant to lump all the members of a profession together. The truth of the matter is that there are some professors whose lectures are bursting with entertainment and even some that are bestselling authors. But they are generally college professors who have deigned to stoop to commit themselves and have written exciting books dubbed "popular science," i.e. not smothered in the dust of past millennia. Despite all my criticism, please don't think for a moment that I don't truly love wordsmiths! In fact, I like them all - no matter if they're "real" authors, journalists, copywriters or academics. I know that my words were harsh, but please believe me, they were meant to be constructive criticism and were based on my own experiences and observations. Please forgive me for my honesty!
14. Million-Dollar Formulas for Best Sellers? Let's conclude the chapter on non-fiction sellers with a provocative question - is there such a thing as a million-dollar formula for non-fiction sellers? Would you mind if I first ushered you into the inner sanctum of some publishing houses before returning to the question? In order to answer the question, we should first discuss publishers' ideas. What exactly is meant by
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idea?"
(1) Well, the publisher's idea behind, say, the publishing house "Reader's Digest" consists of only publishing the hottest products. This is an idea that can't be beat. The publisher only publishes best-selling authors, thereby allying itself with the 0.0001 percent of all geniuses who are already successful and transforms their success into its own. This is an absolutely unstoppable publisher's idea. (2) Another publisher's idea consists of only publishing guides for areas in high demand. In other words, the market is systematically analyzed and the book is produced to cater to the specific market needs. (3) Another publisher's idea consists of setting up a specialized publishing house that transmits technical and specialized know-how. An example - a publishing house for start-ups. This brand of publishing house is geared toward people who want to start their own businesses, who are in search of professional opportunities. Since the target group consists of opportunity-seekers - in other words, intellectually active people who keep their "antennae" out - this idea works, and for the very reason that this group is relatively active. (4)The publisher's idea behind the publishing house "Verlag moderne industrie" consists of tailoring books to cater to a particular target audience - in this case managers and entrepreneurs. This clientele is relatively well-defined, wellheeled and well-read. They don't just want to be up on the latest trends - they have to be. And that's why this publisher's idea works so well. Every publishing house has (written or unwritten, published or confidential) guidelines. They might also be called communication strategies and they basically ensure the company's success. This means that entire publishing houses are based on strategies and maintaining them is a question of life and death, of success and failure. If they're worth their salt, you can conquer entire markets. What do these types of success formulas for communication look like? Let's look at two examples: (1) The editors of the Brockhaus, Germany's best-known encyclopedia, abide by certain guidelines. They • Convey information impartially (neutrally), • Use the best sources,
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Carry the commandment "objective correctness" Write succinctly and clearly and Remain scrupulously up-to-date. 19
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on their banner,
(2)Reuters, the world's largest news agency, cultivates another communication strategy. Its employees • • • • •
Make full use of all opportunities presented by the latest in communications technology, Report completely impartially, i.e. incorruptibly, independently of government influence and not in support of any political party, Publish only the facts and accurate information, Report rapidly and Communicate intelligibly.
The most important commandments are impartiality and accuracy, followed by rapidity and good style. That is the sequence of importance at Reuters. 20 We've discovered a topic known as "communication strategies. " Fascinating! I hold this to be an independent field of study that sets forth how to communicate effectively. It would be worth injecting millions of dollars into research in order to allow this discipline to achieve true recognition. Indeed, billions are being spent on establishing the technical, the formal side of communications channels, such as satellite, telecommunications, databases or Internet. The content-based side, i. e. how to communicate effectively in order to produce the largest effect possible and to enjoy the highest resonance, has, intriguingly enough, yet to be the subject of much attention. In the same light, no one has apparently stumbled across the idea of developing best-seller formulas. Technically, you could pick up a best-selling non-fiction book, analyze it, subdivide the audience into ten target groups - and then write ten new books targeting precisely these groups. Take for example the best seller, The High Art of Selling. 19 Cf. Barbier, Hans D. ; Krause-Brewer, Fides, (ed.) The PerSOIl behind the Product, berg: Rentrop Verlag, 1987. pp. 252-253. 20 Cf. Barbier, Hans D. ; Krause-Brewer, Fides, (ed.) The Person behind the Product, berg: Rentrop Verlag, 1987. pp. 262-263. 21 Mehler, Ha A. How To Start YOllr OWIl Real Estate Business. 9th ed. Idstein: Miiwe work contains an extensive section on selling real estate. The book was - and still is -
Bonn-Bad GodesBonn-Bad GodesVerlag, 1995. This a best seller.
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Divvy it up into: How Professionals How Professionals How Professionals How Professionals
Sell Sell Sell Sell
Real Estate" Insurance" Cars Computers"
First the bad news. I wrote three of these books. But here's the good news, I employed the formula I just explained to you. In the same vein, you could analyze various books which contain truly essential information, but which have been written in a horribly boring, drab and dry style and are complete washouts in the area of customer service. Merely by re-writing these books and presenting the information with more enthusiasm, you could chum out one best seller after the other. It's probably also possible to sort out 100 books from a particular field, determine" What's really interesting here?" and sift out the most interesting parts of these 100 books. The real humdinger is that there is a discipline that describes how to write best sellers. There are success formulas. There's definite lack of comprehensive studies on this topic, although I truly believe that they would be worth any effort. The hottest investigation that might be carried out would consist of digging up effective communication strategies. After all, - virtually every best-selling author operates, be it consciously or unconsciously, according to one or several communication strategies, according to certain guidelines. This is what we could term a very personal success formula. Oftentimes, it comprises mountains of know-how. The most important study would thus consist of scrutinizing best-selling and long-selling authors. Incidentally, the most successful long-sellers have been writers who communicate religious and philosophical content. A study of the techniques employed in, say, the Bible, the Bhagavad-Gita, the Vedas, the Tao Te Ching and the Koran would, as I indicated previously, have to be the first in line, followed by an analysis of globally best-selling authors. A professional would, of course, keep the focus on "How was this written?" Naturally, the methods would have to be communicated in such a way as to be applicable today. The third prong of this approach would entail analyzing other power formulas or effective communication strategies used by other best-selling authors in detail. It would be the most rewarding
a
Mehler, Ha. A. How Do I Set Up My Own Insurance Business? 2"d ed. Bonn-Bad Godesberg: Rentrop Verlag, 1990. Sales techniques play an prominent role in this book as well. The book is a seller. 23 Mehler, Ha. A. How Professionals Sell Computers. Hamburg: Reidar Verlag, 1987. 22
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task imaginable, even though it would be permeated with more controversy than the atom bomb because then you would be in a position to pass judgment on the atom bomb. Let's recap. Every publishing house has its own take on what success is all about. Every best-selling author uses his or her own techniques. Systematic study in this area really ought to enjoy an entirely different relevance than that accorded your average English degree program, where you generally slog your way through interpretive approaches. Instead of looking at the how, i. e. the techniques, you read criticisms of the criticisms of the books no one ends up reading. How is it possible to ignore facts of such importance? There are literary masterpieces that have never, ever, ever been analyzed from the standpoint of getting books written. A study in this area would, in my opinion, payoff ten thousand fold.
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Let's cast our gaze in an entirely different direction, toward a topic that, however, only appears to be dissimilar on the outside - creativity. This field has never been systematically investigated and is constantly surrounded with the halo of genius. Words such as "genius," "imagination," and "talent" haunt the land this word inhabits - holy words everyone of them, and inviolable ones. Be that as it may, artists and writers are occasionally confronted with the unanswered question of "where" their inspiration and brilliant ideas came from. Some of the more insolent of these artists have some of the most bizarre answers at the ready and seriously maintain that their Muses are drawn to the stimulating smoke of their pipe, freshly filled with robust tobacco, or to a good, bracing shot of whiskey or to their felt slippers lined with white satin. You have to determine whether this kind of question can be answered at all. After all, aren't imagination and creativity unfettered by definition? But it's as obvious as the book in your hands that imagination can most certainly not be attributed to alcohol or a polka-dot bathrobe and is very slippery when it comes to trying to squeeze it into a box. Any attempt to wedge art or creativity into a fixed frame appears to be condemned to failure from the very onset. Remember that art is the twin sister of freedom and no one, but no one is harder to boss around than a truly creative individual. Despite this admission, I would still like to try to set forth my own very personal credo on creativity. Indeed, the question has always fascinated me. For that reason, I attempted again and again to ascertain when creativity, imagination, inspiration "worked" the best for me, why everything appeared to work so perfectly in a particular moment, why the Muse had just kissed me and what the cause, the occasion, the reason was for everything just falling into place, for the words literally tumbling out of the typewriter onto the white piece of paper before me of their own volition. Thereafter, my aim was to uncover some laws on creativity. These rules might be entirely subjective and private, as I indicated earlier, but that doesn't prevent them from being an enormous help to me. I also think that there is no more interesting field than that of creativity, of imagination. Furthermore, I firmly believe that a systematic
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study of creative processes could touch off a revolution. Here are my results and findings. Perhaps you could assist the tender shoot of imagination, which is all too easily trampled and crushed, to grow and flower by trying out one or two of these points. Let's get right to the core of my observations:
1. The Discovery: Writing's Own Rhythm One of the first things I discovered to be of importance to writing is the flow. The flow is what carries you along. It's a highly interesting phenomenon. You step onto a boat and allow yourself to be pulled along with the current. You enter a foreign world. Your own world. You embark on a journey. To a world of your own making. That's writing! Ideally, writing itself is powered by an inexorable force. You must not interrupt this flow, lest you perpetually place yourself in the way of this force and are propelled out of your own world, the world of your own making. The flow possesses a rhythm, initially of its own creation until it finally swings back to you, the author, and sweeps you along with it. Perhaps you've experienced at some point that, once you've begun to write, suddenly thousands of ideas descend upon you and you can't stop scribbling. In that instant, you've been transported into a very powerful identity. Writers can transform the world! They've transformed the faces of entire cultures. And ruled countries! The competent communicator is the real king, not the ruler in the long robes and the incommodious crown that weighs heavy on his head. The power and the possibility of influencing and creating become palpable in the process of writing. It's an ecstatic state. You're a piece of God, or even the creator of gods. The concrete names these superlatives might take, however, are unimportant. At the core of this issue is the fact that writing itself possesses its own rhythm that can carry the author upwards to the greatest heights. And this rhythm is what you have to use. It's a power that you can only experience by using. This is a subjective suspense technique that beats all others hands down.
1. Once More: Standpoint and Perspective There is another phenomenon which I'd like to touch on in connection with writing. It fact, it's possible to literally slip into your own story and identify
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with the hero. You can honestly and truly invent something along the lines of a second "reality" that is so "real" that you yourself are carried along with the plot you created. It's the most heart-pounding of all adventures! It demonstrates that a subjective "reality" can be fully as real as "objective" reality. It's incredible but true, you can tumble into your own story! There's no question that you can step into your own space - a space you created - and suddenly find yourself honestly and truly on the planet which you constructed and which you're now picturing in your mind's eye. Furthermore, you can experience the world from your hero's perspective. In that case; you are "thinking" as your protagonist, you feel as he does, you sense his aches and pains and tremble with him. Authors can also slip into other, different roles, just as an actor slips into different costumes. They can experience the "world" from the enemy's perspective, or from the perspective of, say, the enemy's servant. Typically, the most important perspective is that of the hero. Switching roles is also worth considering, perhaps to take up the point of view of the hero's wife, stricken with worry that she might never see her husband return home. The bottom line is that authors have to be able to switch from one perspective to the next. An author perched in the body of a hero languishing in a dungeon, bound and chained, knows that the rattling of the chains resonates with head-splitting volume in the hero's ears; the author knows the hero's revulsion of the teeming spiders and rats in the pit; the author knows every stone in the prison after so many years of imprisonment. It's an absolutely incomprehensible experience to become a person of your own making, to perceive the world through his eyes and to create or to be suddenly an entirely new self. This is the author's prerogative and his very own bailiwick.
3. The Importance of Making Split-Second Decisions Let's look at another subjective viewpo int, one that is generally ignored despite its enormous importance, that of the conscious and unconscious intentions conceived and carried out, in every second of writing. I hold it to be a fact that, when writing, authors will make ten, twenty or a hundred decisions about their writing every second, even every millisecond. Most authors are oblivious to this fact. The important point, however, is that you can choose to make positive or negative decisions. I myself maintain the resolve (without needing to remind
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myself of the fact) -
To To To To To
make the book a best seller, serve the reader as best I can, spin an exciting yarn, whether fiction or non-fiction, create humor wherever appropriate, and inspire the reader.
I never, ever, write on the basis of second-class decisions. Nor do I put myself down - at least not during the sacred phase of creation. To put it another way, I write as fast as the devil and feel like a god. The crux is to keep in mind that you think secretly (unconsciously). For instance, the following thoughts might creep into your consciousness in a fraction of a second: -
"It doesn't have to be all that good this time" or "The publisher will think it's okay" or "The conclusion could have been done better, but it'll pass muster the way it is!" etc. , etc.
"Secretly" thinking lousy, second-class thoughts will cause the quality of your text to suffer. The topic of "decisions" (when writing) is thus of paramount importance because first-class (or second-class) decisions can determine the result of your hard work. "The best of the best" should be your intention when you write.
4. The Dynamism and Raw Power of Truth You, the author, can always find something to hide behind. You can present your opinion so that it doesn't get stuck in the craw of: your your your your
publisher, reader, critic or friends.
This ensures that "the other" can digest it. Gobble it up. Not consider it objectionable. Identify with what has been said. Of considerable interest, however, is that a writer who communicates
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precisely and clearly, lucidly and unmistakably, honestly and genuinely that which she wanted to communicate - without considering the opinions of others - is a writer who is making use of her full potential. The mere fact of writing the truth thrusts a writer, a creative individual into a mood, into a state that is miles above the everyday, average "social" busybodying. At the same time, it's unspeakably liberating to be honest because truth is truth and it has the power to silence lies. By allowing a glimmer of the truth to peek out through her lines, the author becomes a staggeringly powerful writer. Old buildings collapse and new mental empires can be erected. It's an infinitely powerful feeling. In wiping away considerations, conceptions and what-ifs, you free yourself up to write for real. The feeling resembles being released from heavy iron shackles. It's like relearning how to fly. And then write, write, write what you really think! And it will flow, flow, flow.
5. A Code of Ethics for Authors Food for thought - "When do you write best? When is your writing really exciting? When do you surpass even the kings in the business? When does it flow as rapidly as a headlong downhill ski sprint?" There's another subjective, highly interesting experience of mine I don't plan on keeping under wraps. It flows for me like greased lightning when my own morals are in order. When my "nose is clean." I don't mean just that it's your obligation to yourself as a writer not to prostitute yourself, not to hire your pen out to miscreants: What I mean is that your personal morals have to be in tip-top shape if you want your writing to be gripping. After all, you can't tear a flourishing plant out of the soil just for the pleasure of it and then turn around and write a good nonfiction work on gardening. You can't stretch a frog out between two electrodes, shoot electricity through its body and then write a poem. It has also been drawn to the world's attention much too infrequently that literati possess an unimaginable power. Writers have established religions and destroyed global civilizations. They've built and tom down philosophical and political empires. They've hurled the masses into abject moral misery and taught people to be upright, noble and wise. They've brought about the downfall of entire cultures and created global empires of the mind and of civilization. They've provided people with reasons to live and to die. And I believe that for precisely that very reason is it so important for an author to formulate his or
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her very own personal code of ethical conduct. Here's my own code of conduct, which has aided me to expand and grow significantly. § 1 Never swear to help individuals or groups that pursue destructive goals. Never use the power of your pen to help promulgate injurious intentions. §2 Don't subjugate yourself to the power of money. Your power is infinitely greater. Money can buy bodies. Ideas can possess souls. § 3 Never permit yourself to remain silent in the face of injustice. §4 Write the truth.
The truth must be expressed boldly and repeatedly.
§ 5 You don't write for publishers, editors, critics or any experts. audience. §6 Don't allow yourself to be gagged. communication.
Serve your
Don't allow anyone to murder your
§ 7 Speak with people every day. Cultivate an endless curiosity. § 8 Demonstrate
your principles in practical life.
Practice what you preach.
§9 Don't permit yourself to produce anything less than the very best quality. Work unceasingly on perfecting and improving the technical/formal and the content-based aspects of your writing. § 10 Refer to sources you use in your works. Quote precisely. Give credit to those who inspired you. Make sure to thank those responsible. At this stage in our ruminations, it's interesting to follow the fates of real creativity teams that have operated on our planet and that still operate here. One figure I find absolutely fascinating in this regard is Wernher von Braun, one of the key individuals in aerospace technology. He is one of the great minds behind launching humans into outer space and onto other planets. It's a source of enormous pleasure to follow the creativity team's progress while working under von Braun's direction. The work was carried out with
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overwhelming optimism and enthusiasm. Excitement, commitment, verve and zest describe the mood prevalent in Werner von Braun's team. But this creativity team collapsed. Why? There are two main reasons: Opening up outer space and other planets, solar systems and galaxies to humanity is a forthright, pure and clean undertaking. It is linked to so much adventure and opportunity for the human race to survive that it almost makes you wild with excitement. Indeed, it enables humans to experience a new lifestyle on other planets. It removes people from the blackmailing influence of insane arms dealers on Earth, who basically hold all of humanity hostage in fear and horror. Additionally, discoveries of unforeseeable importance will be made in medicine, physics, chemistry, biology and philosophy once we commence living in outer space. We will learn to think in entirely different terms. Indeed, we should never lose sight of this clear, clean goal of conquering outer space through technological advancement. But let's return to our text. Why did von Braun's creativity team go under? The answer is simple. The original, crystal-clear, ethical goal was undermined. The moment the project began to deal with the first baby steps of toddling out into outer space, some madmen, the arms dealers and warmongers, immediately thought of war. War in outer space. So it came to be that the original, ethical, moral, lofty goal was corrupted and replaced by a destructive one. That was the beginning of the downfall of creativity. Creativity lives on the back of morals! Money began to play an ever greater role. Funding flowed from Washington through various channels to the spaceship designers. The financial backers then tried to maximize their influence, funneling billions of dollars into the project. The (alleged) program sponsors (it was in reality the population whose taxes paid for the space experiment) indirectly blackmailed the creativity team. Wernher von Braun finally gave up and left the stage. Thus, it's possible to analyze why creativity teams split up. It's a highly interesting undertaking. Why did the Beatles split up? Writers' circles? In my opinion, ethical conduct was the glue holding the group together and once it deteriorated, the members fell apart. Ethics and creativity are bosom buddies. These lines are, to my mind, therefore more than just the naive idealism of an author. My experience has shown me that ethics are the sine qua non of creativity and with it real knowhow, above and beyond any ideologies and world views.
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One more comment on my own behalf. If you're already a hard-nosed writer, who has been through it all and seen it all and are more hard-boiled than a nine-minute egg, you might snicker at my code of conduct. But I'd like to draw your attention to something. When I discovered the ethics factor, I wasn't interested in promoting morals for their own sake. Of course you could point to Shakespeare and Goethe, who probably still ,have such resonance and enjoy such prestige in our society because they were so respectable and because they insisted on placing ethics on the royal throne. Many successful writers only wielded their pens in support of ethical pursuits, which were naturally defined differently by each writer. It would be worth carrying out a separate study and a dissertation on enumerating the myriad ideals that served as sources of inspiration for poets. Practically every great author struggled for the right to ethics - a highly remarkable circumstance! But, as I mentioned earlier, I have a very practical reason for my interest in this topic. In my case, my conclusion was preceded by the subjective observation of when my writing was at its best, when the letters practically tumbled out of the typewriter of their own free will, when writing became an unstoppable flood. My findings - ethics. I'm unable to boil the results down to anything else and it should be understood that I have no desire to champion a particular moral code. This is my goal: Every individual holds certain things to be good, correct, decent and precious, right? If a certain writer's writing is informed by this entirely subjective understanding of what is right and decent, it enables his writing to attain a fascinating flow. This circumstance I'm drawing your attention to is subjective and technical.
6. Subjective Suspense Techniques The following creativity techniques are fundamentally based on the suspense techniques set forth in Chapter III of this book. (l)There is a trick you can apply in order to provoke a highly subjective "state of suspense," which then pumps mo.re "suspense" into the story. The trick consists of imagining that, say, a gangster is standing behind you right now with a loaded revolver. He's threatening to shoot you if you don't
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immediately write an excellent story in no time flat. In other words, you can imagine mortal danger that affects yourself. By the way, you don't have to picture a thug threatening you. You could also, say, hang a noose around your neck in order to physically and palpably suggest death by hanging ... The point is that you can use your own imagination to catapult yourself into an extreme state of suspense. An example taken from "literary history" illustrating this technique are the 1001 Arabian Nights. The narrator of these stories, Sheherezade, will pay with her life if she fails to maintain the sultan's interest by telling him an extremely exciting story. A fabulous trick! The storyteller knows that it will mean her death not to spin exciting and gripping stories. (2) Another technique consists of imagining that you have no time. Most authors do not work worse under time pressure - they work better! For example, you can picture having an important appointment in two hours (which you can have or not; the only really important thing is imagining that you do have one) and that in the two hours remaining, you have to write ten outstanding pages. Subjectively believing that you have very little time can also act as a "suspense technique." This imaginary lack of time is then often reflected "objectively" in the text that was penned in these circumstances. Remember - action means "a lot of plot and very little time." Feeling rushed will often be transported from the writer to the writer's own story. You can imagine lack of time or mortal dangers. It would also be possible to put yourself in other states. But uppers, alcohol or drugs of any kind are entirely unsuitable because they hamper your imagination in a very brief period of time, although musicians love to claim on occasion that they help. But take a listen to psychedelic music, with its monotonous tempos or insane, crazy rhythms, that was probably composed by musicians who were working under the influence of drugs. Drugs, uppers and pills are truly pathetic methods; they destroy artists. Autobiographies of many superstars are sufficient proof of this fact.
7. Criticism of Critics There's a fascinating topic known as "criticism. " It's incredible. Enthralling. Seductive. I'm sure that you've read my true opinion between the lines of my
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ironic comments. But let's get serious. Deadly serious. In fact, this is the trickiest and most dangerous topic for writers, or for artists period. On the one hand, being written about comes with the territory. On the other, it can mentally kill and castrate writers. I've met top-notch writers - the best of the best imaginable - who were mentally murdered by critics. The reason is that criticism causes you to obsess. It directs your attention inwards and not outwards. The funny thing is that negative and positive criticism is capable of doing this. An artist who has been praised beyond all earthly measure for one of his creations might fixate on a technique and a topic - and lose in the process. There are certainly some potentially persuasive comments on this subject, such as "Yes, but shouldn't you allow others to voice their opinion?" "Perhaps it might be positive criticism?" Let's keep this short and sweet - don't buy into this bilge! The only exception I accept is when a critic precisely indicates where a printing or typographical error was made, in what part of the book, on which page, which line. In other words, whenever there's a distinction made. In all other cases, I forget criticism! Completely! Professionals ignore critics. Sometimes they don't even take the time to poke fun at them. Salvador Dali, for example, only measured the quantity of criticism written about him by determining how many newspapers had reported on him and how many centimeters thick the pile of articles was. He was only interested in whether or not he was being "talked about. " What he didn't care about was what was being said. There's yet another tricky mechanism that impinges upon the subject of criticism. Naturally, there's no objection to you continuously improving your spelling. And your grammar. And polishing your techniques. And becoming ever more professional. But if you have a run-in with some of these meanspirited, pathetic figures who are so unpleasantly insistent on correcting you, you'll eventually hang up writing. One day, the writing will stop. After a certain number of criticisms, your self-confidence, your desire and your love for a particular subject dissolve into thin air. I would just love to list all the English teachers who've written the most cutting things with a bright red marker on your essays. If you were sitting
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right across from me, I would insist that you pull out your own marker and write down all the humiliations you've suffered at the hands of these critics. This act alone would help you to distance yourself from it all. You would be able to spit on the list and recognize that these so and sos, these murderers of communication were themselves sorry figures who were only attempting to halt you, stop you and to humiliate you. You might even want to set up your own personal guidelines that would nip any similar thing in the bud. You could do something to fight these creatures, you could deal a blow against these people. It follows that the first step towards becoming a writer consists of shaking off these assassins of communication. So first and foremost - ban all criticism from your "ego" - your English teacher's criticism, for example. Or your mother's. Your father's. Your brother's. Your aunt's. Your sister's - or anyone's at all. Keep a lookout for people who are "concerned. "You know who I mean, people who "only want the best for you" and intersperse little "harmless" comments such as "Why are you even bothering to write? You know you can't make a living writing. " Or anything along those lines. An editor at a publishing house can be a treacherous figure, ambushing you by sending back a manuscript with cloyingly polite words such as, "Our negative response should not be construed as a negative comment on the quality of your manuscript ... " - the worst comment that can ever be made! Beware of this type of viciousness! An editor who states that the manuscript is "too bold," "too reckless," or whatever, who gently hints that you can't write is digging your spiritual grave. Perhaps the Nobel Prize will one day be awarded to someone who has listed all the subtle methods of criticism, thereby setting a new artistic renaissance into motion. You have to know, however, that there are subtle ways of humiliating people. Okay? The real meat of this point resides in the intention factor. Even words whose meaning is harmless can tear right through you if their intention has directed its razor-sharp point at killing you as a creative individual. Let's assume that you've eliminated these vultures from your memory. Deleted. Eradicated and swept them aside. At this point, entirely new worlds will open themselves up to you. It feels as though you've been reborn. An enormous influx of strength infuses your bones. Now what? Well - write. Write. Write. Heck, just sit down right now, at your typewriter or pick up a pen or pencil and write! Quantity is what allows
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you to learn and achieve quality. Speaking is just as important! By speaking a lot, you learn how to speak and how to write. After all, it also involves dealing with words. So start speaking more as of this very moment! Without any periods or any commas! Okay? And never let anyone gag you. Only by letting your mouth run will you learn to talk and write! Communicate more than you ever have before. Let's take a look at the last topic to be included under the heading "criticism." This is the most subtle and most dangerous of all by far. I'm talking about self-criticism. In fact, you can doubt yourself into an early creative grave. Whenever you criticize yourself, you're behaving like a fencer who runs himself through for lack of an enemy to fight. I hope that an expert will one day turn her attention to what must be a very interesting experiment - listing all the ways you can criticize yourself. Now, there's nothing wrong with professionalism! Striving to improve your own quality constantly and steadily is a totally different story, however. Self-criticism often causes a work to be re-written fifty times without there being any noticeable "improvement." Self-criticism is treacherous for the simple reason that no one expects to have an enemy in his or her own camp. Here's how the game works. You think a particular idea and in the same instant, twenty reasons occur to you why the idea "won't work." It's bad. Worthless. Too difficult. Too elaborate, etc. etc. This brand of reason is the assassin of works of art and artists. Recognize an old enemy? Evidently no one has ever drawn attention to this mechanism. So you have three types of foes to tackle, official critics, "good friends" (of times past and times present) and yourself. The good news is that recognizing the enemy is half the battle.
1. Jack London's Techniques Since we're in the thick of discussing creativity techniques, the sources of inspiration, the very "philosophy" of writing, one comment should not go unsaid: Every author has developed his or her very own, very special and
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very personal literary credo. So if you want to track down creativity like another Sherlock Holmes, you have to rifle through biographies of great authors. This approach will uncover more than one secret. Let's look at Jack London's life from this angle. How did he go about writing? What allowed him to rise to become the most-read writer of an entire era? What is the secret of his immense success? Let's rummage through his biography in search of gold, in search of creativity. When you examine Jack London's life, the first thing that occurs to you is that he was an amazing guy. A real character. A wild man. Before getting into the nitty-gritty, please allow me to make a comment on my own behalf. Whenever writing a work, be it a biography or a plot line or whatever, you should always construct the entire work toward a firecracker, a surprise at the end. At least, that's what's taught in good writing schools. And I've pointed to this technique on several occasions. But when discussing Jack London's biography, the technique is unnecessary. It's an almost impossible task to lead the reader systematically towards a climax, for the simple reason that London's life was a chain of exciting events. In the course of his life, he experienced one breath-taking, heart-pounding adventure after another. It's unbelievable! Having said that, I would like to conclude our trek through his life with what will probably be an astonishing analysis of the reasons why this author managed to become the best-paid and most popular writer of his time. But let's first turn our attention to his incredible eventful life. Indeed, it's so colorful, so hectic, so intense, so improbable that it takes your breath away. But I swear that the following lines are the Gospel truth. The most successful author in America, and probably the most copied penpusher of the 20th century, always wrote a minimum of 100 lines per day, a minimum he himself set. However, he began his life as poor as a church mouse. London, born on the 12th of January, 1876 in San Francisco, went through his childhood with an endless rumbling in his belly. He was up before dawn to deliver newspapers before school. On weekends, he earned a few extra pennies selling ice cream. The family lived in a sordid hut; sanitary facilities were things others had. Jack only wore patched, tattered rags and suffered racking hunger pains every day. Educational opportunities were modest, if they existed at all. If London hadn't devoured books like a madman,
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he would have lived his life in ignorance. At the age of fifteen, .he earned meager wages, working no less than ten, but sometimes eighteen or even twenty hours a day in a canning factory. How did this fellow manage to free himself from these miserable circumstances and climb to reach the highest heights? And how was this greenhorn, trapped in the deepest poverty, able to pull himself up by his own bootstraps? Well, here's the story ... For months, London had been suffering in the most demeaning situation imaginable in a canning factory. But one day he rebelled. He decided to put an end to it and chucked the whole wretched business, having made the irrevocable decision not to work so crushingly hard for a few cents a day. He had heard of the legend of the oyster pirates. These fellows plundered the oyster banks of San Francisco Bay and hawked the delicious, edible shellfish for hefty prices. Good money could evidently be earned much more easily selling oysters. The moment London caught wind of the fact that one of the older oyster pirates wanted to divest himself of his boat, the Razzle Dazzle, the boy scraped together $300 and bought the vessel. The very next night, he set out on his first heist. The money rolled in, just as he had hoped. Of course, he had to keep a sharp eye out for the police. He also had to hold his own against the other pirates, who initially didn't want such a young sprout as London, the youngest captain of them all, in their midst. And he had to struggle against his own fear. But he soon made a name for himself. His companions eventually dubbed him the "Prince of the Oyster Pirates" in honor of his having risen to become the most successful of all thieves. By now, London was earning $180 do lIars per night. We don't know what caused the turnaround, but we do know that one day Jack London received an offer he couldn't refuse from the police. They wanted him to work for them. To switch sides. To hunt down the oyster bandits and help them put a halt to their underground trade. He began working for the police, making life very difficult for the pirates. About half-way through the operation he changed his mind and signed on as a sailor on the Sophie Sutherland, an eighty-tanner headed for Japan, Siberia and Korea. For seven long months, he toiled as a seal-hunter, a sailor and as the ship's gofer. In the process, he saw and experienced more at a tender age than possibly any writer before him. And, as the ship's boy and the youngest crew member, he suffered beatings at the hands of the hardened, jaded, older sailors.
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Once he returned, a little worse for wear and little wiser, he immediately sought work at a jute mill. Ten hours of work for a single dollar, he later complained. But - he published his very first story. Eventually, he hatched a plan to become an author, or rather a great, a famous, an extremely successful author. As a stop-gap measure he studied to become an electrician, but he was roped into shoveling coal "as a preparation." He didn't enjoy the job and chose to explore the world. He became a "professional" tramp. Being a hobo meant running the risk of being hurled off of moving trains by unsympathetic train watchmen. It also meant struggling to survive in the freezing cold, wearing tick-infested clothing. Hobos were among the poorest of the poor. Battered by fate, many were infirm, antisocial or criminal. London didn't care one iota about all that. He traveled to Chicago, New York and Niagara Falls. At the Falls, he was arrested and thrown in jail for 30 days. London, now 19 years old, returned to his home town with the worldly experience of a thirty-year-old man. His dream of becoming a writer had not left him. He worked long and hard, struggling with words and molding grammar to suit him. "On the side," he managed to complete some private studies and was admitted to college. He turned his back on a college education after two semesters but writing remained his passion. "Every day, he wrote more than fifteen hours'?" - essays, stories, poems, humorous poems and tragic epics. But not a newspaper, not a single magazine would buy his manuscripts. London had to sell his books and clothes and borrow money in order to survive. But he continued to write, undaunted. He learned that Fortuna is an obstinate goddess, sometimes demanding to be courted for many years. He fought on, obsessively scribbling. In the name of his dream he took on any job that presented itself, ironing shirts, laundering underwear, or whatever afforded him the most time to write. But there remained one last hurdle that fate had put between him and success. One day, London heard tales of mind-boggling gold finds in distant Alaska. Shortly thereafter, newspapers told of a handful of vagabonds who had made their fortune there and had become rich, practically overnight. London caught a bad case of gold fever. The next day he quit his job and set out to become a 24
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millionaire. He got the essential equipment - fur coat, boots, blankets, tent, oven, snowshoes, tools and a thousand other bagatelles - and set off. In three months, he had covered about 1,200 miles with some very cumbersome baggage. The "Canadian police had stipulated that every goldhunter was to carry a ton of equipment and $500 in cash on them." (Ayck) He finally arrived in Alaska, but his trials only multiplied. He had to wrestle with hunger, gold fever, envy, thieves and sneaks. But he searched on, eternally hopeful, despite snow fields that could drive a man insane. He suffered through dangers and interminable disappointments. He never found a single speck of gold dust. What he did bring back with him were copious notes he had taken, on the people, their behavior, their personalities and the sweeping snowy landscape. In 1898 London left the prospecting territories empty-handed and navigated a tiny boat 1,700 miles down the Yukon river where he signed on a ship as a stoker. He made his way south as passenger, sailor and tramp until he reached his home town, penniless, burned-out and bitterly disappointed. I can imagine how he must have felt, bled dry and burned to ash. Nevertheless, he pulled himself together and continued writing. He wrote like he was possessed by the devil. He submitted one story after another until he finally received that long-awaited answer. One of his short stories had been accepted! He danced and cheered. The price paid for his short story? A thousand words brought in a dollar and twenty five cents! But it was a beginning. Soon after, he hocked his raincoat, suit and bicycle, rather than accept an attractive job offer, but that made more time for writing. And one day, his first real success came knocking. at the door. One of the best-known literary journals accepted another one of his short stories. His inconceivable stubbornness had carried him a long way. He received what was an unusually high payment for his story, $120. He was able to get his things out of hock, payoff his debts and pay his rent. Soon, another large publisher offered to publish a volume of his short stories. London was on cloud nine. And still producing. He wrote and wrote - for example, stories about legendary gold finds in Alaska, never forgetting to add a surprising twist at the end of his stories. The result? Jack London won. Won an audience! Won a job, money, respect, fame and acclaim. Notably, at that point he began to research systematically, He neatly noted everything he could uncover about ground-breaking progress, interesting research findings and real news. He set up a comprehensive card catalog in which he kept records of all his discoveries
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and news. As if that wasn't work enough, after his first relatively large success he began to write even more, if that was possible. He didn't restrict his publications to short stories. He wrote criticism and articles. He worked his fingers raw and published by the ream. Even as the cash rolled in, he never rested. He tirelessly improved the quality of his work. He elevated precise and meticulous research to a high art as no other author had before, literally descending into the underworld of the British capital, for instance, to explore life in the London slums. He disguised himself in old ragged clothes so that he could observe his surroundings without being too conspicuous. This enabled him to acquire the precise, irreplaceable knowledge that set him apart from other pen-pushers. From an unpublished writer to a published author, from a poorly-paid writer to a well-paid author, Jack London climbed the ladder of success inexorably to the top. And then it mushroomed in 1909. Sales of his novel, The Call of the Wild, reached 750,000. On the first day of the book's release, with the ink barely dry, 10,000 copies were snatched up by ravenous readers. These numbers propelled London beyond all records previously set in the United States. Just for the sake of comparison, Mark Twain's Adventures of Tom Sawyer sold 375,000 copies in 1879. Joel Chandler Harris' Uncle Remus: His Songs and Sayings sold about 500,000 copies. A cool half million copies were also sold of Sir Arthur Conan Doyle's immortal Sherlock Holmes. Uncle Tom's Cabin sold about 625,000 copies. But every last one of them was beaten - by Jack London! Then the frenzy to bring London's works to print and the screen began in earnest. . The first filmed version of the The Sea Wolf was released in 1913. And in 1914, no fewer than five novels penned by this incomparable author were adapted for the screen. By 1958, forty-two films based on his works had been released "In 1913, London described himself as the best-paid and most popular author in the world. " (Ayck) A dream came true, a wish became reality. This story really ends here, at least in literary terms, but please allow us to add a few superlatives .. The flow of dollars that entered this former street waif's coffers grew exponentially. London invested heavily in real estate and bought anything
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else his heart desired. Fans by the hundreds clamored to meet him. Joernaliszs, actors, politicians - they all courted his favor. He afforded himself the I of maids and other household servants. In short, he lived like a king. But his research and writing continued at a furious pace. The year 190 saw him in Yokohama, where he reported on the Russo-Japanese War. There he was arrested and jailed for a short time. When he returned home, he experienced first-hand how celebrities are hounded by the public, how unbelievably nerve-wracking being at the center of attention is. He had savored the sweet foretaste of the delicious wine of fame for so long. Now he had to endure its bitter aftertaste. His fame and wealth continued to grow. He became the leader of the Socialist Party but later broke with it in disappointment near the end of his life. He sailed to Hawaii and Samoa, took up farming, bred exotic animals and drank himself into a stupor, albeit with the finest liquor money could buy. His agricultural interests got him involved in breeding horses, cultivating a eucalyptus plantation and setting up an experimental farm incorporating the latest scientific research. At the same time, he was producing books in staggering quantities. But his burgeoning need for money eventually drove him to buy ideas for novels and stories. He bought them from, among others, Sinclair Lewis, who was to receive the Nobel prize for literature. Nothing stood in the way of his success - thirteen million copies of his books were published during his lifetime - in the former Soviet Union alone! But we'll stop here and briefly gloss over the part of his life where he began to swallow disappointment after disappointment. He sank into a haze of alcohol and opium. As a result of these abuses, suicide extinguished his brilliant life force. I prefer not to dwell on such tragic things. Out of respect for his genius, this short biography of the great Jack London should end at the peak of his fame and power. What we should ask ourselves is what are the real secrets to the success of the man once called the world's best author? To my mind, there are at least five success formulas to be distilled out of London's biography. Each is more exciting than the next. Success formula number one: I've already mentioned the first reason for his unprecedented success earlier in this book. Jack London studied vocabulary each and every day, like someone learning a foreign language. Good, rich, vivid, striking words. He systematically
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expanded his vocabulary. He also allowed the works of other authors to improve secret to his creativity simply consisted of his learning He opened his eyes. He sought out best-selling authors that's pretty easy to do. Their books can be purchased appears that no one really looks at them to professionally
his vocabulary. One from other geniuses. as his teachers. And everywhere. But it usurp their secrets.
Let's move on to success formula number two: Jack London also meticulously studied the vocabulary employed by the characters he was intending to write about. He enthralled his readers with a realistic atmosphere that reflected their lives. He listened to what certain target groups - to borrow some terminology from the sociologists - were saying. The biographer Thomas Ayck describes his approach as "using technical terms from the working life of the characters he portrayed, detailed information about the devices and tools in order to create a realistic prose. Backstay, topsail, ketch, spinnaker, in short, words from sailor's lingo ... "25 Because you can never get enough of a good thing, here's success formula number three: Jack London phrased his own literary credo to read, "Study Stevenson and Kipling and see how they eliminate themselves and create things that live, and breathe, and grip men, and cause reading lamps to burn overtime. . .. Get your good strong phrases, fresh and vivid; write intensely, not exhaustively or lengthily."> In other words, London is pleading for fresh, intelligible, powerful, terse grammar and railing against epic breadth, an eternal bore. Let's get down to success formula number four: His unbelievable stubbornness, his unwavering belief in himself, his unshakeable resolution to become a writer should be taken as a philosophy of life. In fact, London was able to swallow hundreds of rejections, just like a good boxer shrugging off ten sharp jabs to the chin without batting an eye. This stamina is what sets him apart from other literati. Let's look at the last modus operandi, success formula number five, without Ayck, Thomas. Jack London. Reinbeck bei Hamburg: Rowohlt Taschenbuch-Verlag, 1976. pp. 94-95. Stone, Irving. Jack London, Sailor on Horseback: A Biography by Irving Stone. New York: Signet Press. 1978. p 140. 25
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a doubt the most interesting and the most important of all literary success formulas for writers, pen-pushers, poets and scribblers. It can be boiled down to one thing. Jack London was a top-notch researcher. He stuck his nose into everything. He went everywhere, high and low, north and south. He examined every detail personally. Let's not forget - he himself prospected for gold - and was thus able to write better and more precisely about gold-seeking than any other author. He knew life on boats, ships and barges first-hand and was therefore able to write "realistic" novels about ships and the high seas. The result: global best sellers! Jack London also knew about huskies, those famous sled-dogs, first-hand. The result: sellers with and about huskies. I think I can stop at this point. The crux of this section is research! Jack London was as curious as a child discovering the world. And he didn't care one whit about personal danger. He didn't live your average, obedient, bourgeois life. He flung himself directly into the maelstrom known as life, elevating the obligation to research to an art form. Many best-selling authors don't do it any other way. They research! Personally. On site. First-hand. Take a look at the incomparable John Grisham. A trained lawyer who knows his way around all the legal tricks, dodges and stratagems and can write highly competently about them. Put Ken Follett under the microscope, dissect him and you'll discover that this fellow, a world-wide best-selling author, researches meticulously. Some best-selling authors who write spy novels were themselves secret agents and know the business like the back of their hand. Jack London teaches us that personal experience, personal research is the stuff best sellers are made. That's the gold you should be digging for. It's amazing that the life of one single writer can teach you so much. Jack London talked to everyone. He experienced everything first hand. He observed and took notes. He had been involved in hundreds of professions and had seen thousands of places. As we've seen, every writer has his own sources of inspiration and employs his own subjective creativity techniques.
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9. The Last Secret of Creativity Let's take up the last and perhaps most controversial bit of information. It's clear that there are a host of wrong opinions on the subject of "inspiration. " A widely, yet wrongly held belief is that you can only be inspired by others. Or by your environment. This brand of idea is the product of diverse modern ideologies. So-called "creativity techniques" might even be dangerous if all they do is stuff you with incorrect information. For example, let's take a look at the so-called morphological analysis, an alleged creativity technique. How does it work? Here's an exact quote: "The morphological analysis method calls for identifying the structural dimensions of a problem and examining the relationships among them. The hope is to find some novel combinations. Suppose the problem is "getting something from one place to another via a powered vehicle. "The important dimensions are the type of vehicle (cart, chair, bed); the medium (air, water, snow, hard surface, rollers, rails); the power source (compressed air, internalcombustion engine, electric motor). Thus a cart-type vehicle powered by an internal-combustion engine and moving through snow is the snowmobile. "27 Do you want to know my comment on this technique? Well, perhaps it might work in specific cases, but it is just as likely to impede. It hampers you from seeing situations in an entirely new light. This technique yanks your attention to the separate parts, thereby making it more difficult to concoct the appropriate solutions. It's a creativity technique for idiots. After all, it would have you think only in combination with pre-existing things. This causes you to fixate. Recent progress in physics and chemistry has been made for the very reason that entirely new paths were taken to reach the solution! In other words, everything that limits you also limits your creative potential. Let's take a look at another so-called creativity technique known as synectics. Let's define it first. "William J.J Gordon espoused a very different technique: He begins by defining the problem very vaguely. For example, one company was working on a design for the fastenings on the vaporproof suits worn by workers who handle high-powered fuels. Gordon kept the specific problem a secret and led a discussion on the general problem of "closure," which led to images of diffe27
Kotler, Philip. Marketing Management.
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rent closure mechanisms, such as birds' nests, mouths or thread. exhausted the initial perspectives, Gordon gradually introduced refined the problems further. .When the group was getting close to a good solution, Gordon described the problem. Then the group started to refine the solution. These sessions would last a minimum of three hours, for Gordon believed that fatigue plays an important role in unlocking ideas. "28
,a
It's difficult to imagine a technique that would be more off the mark. Exhaustion never "played an important role in unlocking ideas" for me. How wrong can you be? Well, at least by 200 percent. Bogus creativity techniques are by far more dangerous than nonexistent ones because they suggest that they teach know-how. Gordon also suggested that you "Let apparently irrelevant, accidental things suggest analogies that are sources of new viewpoints." Good Lord! Of course, this limits the springboard for ideas to what is already known, which limits you and forces you to look for the source of inspiration outside yourself. It can only be found within you. No one has ever defined the location where inspiration takes place. It resides within the individual. I'm proclaiming clearly and loudly that despite the fact that so-called "creativity techniques" have been bandied about, they are in fact incredibly harmful to your creativity because they are limiting. Of course, you can "orient" yourself by way of all sorts of things - the countryside, other people, your own experience, animals, groups, plants and books. But such orientation limits and directs your attention. The more limited you are, the fewer opportunities you have. To put it simply, to limit = to shrink to create = to expand. Let's turn our attention to another "creativity technique" - brainstorming. "Brainstorming" is a technique employed to arrive at new ideas or solutions to problems. It takes the form of a group discussion in which every individual is free to let his or her thoughts wander. Criticism is not allowed in any form during the brainstorming session. Even contributions that appear to be nonsensical or impossible to implement are welcome." My comment: This is, in fact, one of the few methods that actually works. Kotler, Philip. Marketing Management. Cf. Escherle, Hans J. ; Kaplan, Klaus. pp. 65·66. 28 29
9th ed. Upper Saddle River: Prentice-Hall, Inc. , 1997. p. 315. Munich: Compact Verlag, 1982,
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CREATIVITY TECHNIQUES: MIGHT AND MAGIC
Let's look at another "creativity technique," "bionics." Another horror, bionics is used in technical design, among other fields. Models are taken from nature and used to design new products. That's "bionics. " But again, I have to warn you that this approach limits creativity. After all, the first principle of creativity is that you don't have to orient yourself to pre-existing patterns. In other words, creative thought when forced to fixate on models, as is the case with bionics, cannot flow freely. This type of technique only serves to provide you with more opportunities to fixate, to limit yourself. I would say that "creativity techniques" in their current form are not merely dubious in nature, they're totally worthless. The fact is that the problem of creativity can't be solved mechanically. If you were to draw up a code of conduct, the first commandment would be to refrain from allowing yourself to be guided by any sort of mechanism. In other words: • Ignore all laws of chemistry and physics. • Ignore all laws - period. To the extent that you fixate on particular laws, you limit your flexibility, mobility and creativity. Get it? You have to learn to function without frantically and fearfully looking for points of reference to latch onto. A truly creative person considers his or her own thoughts to be more valuable and more real than any reality churned out in accordance with rules and mechanical laws. You're right, of course, every creative person adores sources of inspiration. For example, I never miss an opportunity to ask people to tell me the most exciting thing they have ever experienced. I open myself to inspiration by cultivating the art of listening. For someone else, the ne plus ultra might be a Beethoven sonata. A third person might be propelled to the heights of creativity by watching bats mate. Don't misunderstand me, there's nothing wrong with being inspired by ...whatever! To put it another way, anything that expands horizons, brings about more insight, or gets a person into a creative mood is fabulous! But it's dangerous to elevate a subjective source of inspiration to the status of a doctrine. It is deadly to view creativity as being dependent on external events. Do you really want to be more creative? Good. Then take that dung heap of so-called "creativity techniques" from yesteryear and chuck the whole thing into the trash. Don't ever forget that it is you, the individual, who is the source of creativity and inspiration irrespective of hereditary disposition, environment or any of a thousand external
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circumstances. In you there resides an immeasurable creative potential that mere rules and laws can never repress. Creativity is infinite per definition. It might be poetically described as something sacred, immense, intangible and beyond the scope of mortal expression. It is the ability to think thoughts that have never been thought and to bring something original and new into being. Of course you can orient yourself by way of external, pre-existing means. What I am trying to tell you is that you don't have to. Let's venture some predictions about the future of the "field" of creativity. There will be repeated attempts to limit creativity and to reduce the whole subject to a digital format which can be conveniently stored on a computer disk. But it will never work, not because creativity encompasses an infinite number of factors but because, in the final analysis, creativity is not a compendium of pre-existing facts. Never allow anyone to define and limit you as a person or as an artist. Such efforts as the contrived "methods" described above are nothing but the feeble attempts of "social scientists" to understand and define the phenomena of creativity and the artist. Just accept the encouraging fact that creativity is an entirely unknown variable in the human equation. Any attempts to restrict it are nothing more than painful efforts to limit that which is limitless and render finite that which is infinite. Let's take another look at the creativity techniques outlined earlier in this chapter. All of these techniques have the aim of overcoming limitations. For instance when I describe the "flow" of my writing as a creativity technique what that means, essentially, is that I don't allow myself to be bullied around by time. I don't concede any control of my creative functioning to time. When I promote "points of view and perspective" as a creativity method, I am arguing in favor of assuming more points of view, advising you to ignore borders - to cross right over them - and I am advocating expansion. As far as I personally am concerned, (and - please - consider what I'm about to tell you only in those terms) I follow certain creativity laws. They were drawn up by me and are based on my own individual experience. Perhaps you might allow yourself to be inspired by one or more of them.
175
THE LAWS OF CREATIVITY I. II. III.
IV. V. VI.
VII. VIII.
IX. X.
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The point of reference for creativity is ultimately one's own self. Creativity is infinite per definition. The source of all creativity lies within the individual. One's childhood, environment, hereditary disposition or sensory impressions are not necessarily the basis of one's "imagination. " As a creative individual, one should not submit to the "authority" of others. One can and should disregard physical and "natural" laws. Philosophical and cultural "laws" and other "sciences" and similar specialized fields can limit creativity and stifle imagination. Take the viewpoint that it is possible to disregard all manifest existence and experience. There exist very subjective factors that act to assist creativity. Although they should not be considered to be objective laws, they can nevertheless be of great subjective magnitude. In other words the works of art and creations of others can act as stimuli. Travel might be an influential stimulus or even one's subjectively pleasant perception of the correct level of ambient sound. There are many thousands of similar experiences and circumstances which might be productively stimulating. But they are all subjective in nature. Creative potential expands in the absence of criticism. One can resolve to be creative. One can make the decision to have a thousand ideas in a day, or even in a single second.
HOW TO WRITE A BEST SELLER (2) So, the wheel has come full circle, as the Bard once said. I hope I was able to pass along at least some ideas and perceptions that will be helpful to you. Don't forget the most important information in this book. Be sure to take every opportunity to speak, communicate, wax philosophi al and ex '0 elf even at the risk of spouting a little hogwash from time to time. On} -' '-' free rein to your own voice will you ever perfect those gra eful lID"" . . somersaults and back flips you'd love to perform just for the sheer jo . 0 i: And keep on writing! Whatever you do, don't allow yourself to be bound an gagged by so-called authorities. Gush like a fountain! Write!! If you would like to pay me the most sincere compliment possible, go directly to your typewriter or pick up your quill and start writing! You don't have to start by writing a 5000 page novel right out of the chute. Write a short story or a novella or any tasty little morsel. You could even start by writing a letter to me telling me how much (I hope!) you loved this book. I'm really looking forward to it!
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Thanks! Writing a book of this caliber is not possible without acknowledging the influence of so many writers. I would like to express my gratitude to the entire tradition of distinguished poets and thinkers such as Aristotle and Horace, but also literally hundreds of contemporary writers who have inspired me. In particular, I would like to mention Agatha Christie, Michael Crichton, Sir Arthur Conan Doyle, Will Durant, Ken Follett, John Grisham, Robert A. Heinlein, Hermann Hesse, E. T.A. Hoffmann, Heinrich von Kleist, Jack London, James A. Michener, E.E. Smith, Jack Vance, Voltaire, Edgar Wallace, Mika Waltari, H.G. Wells, Stefan Zweig and many more. My special thanks go out to L. Ron Hubbard, without whose continual inspiration this book would not have been possible. .
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11111 111111 lililiil ~i~i~llirlilii Irl'~li~iillllllllllll 3 146700604
1051
Park Ridge Public Library 20 S. Prospect Park Ridge, Illinois
60068
APR
2003 DEMeo
ISBN 0-9719-6171-9 90000
9 780971 961715
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