Plotter or Pantster? Okay, What the Hell Is a Pantster?

During my recently-finished ebook tour with Roxanne Rhoad’s Bewitching Book Tours, I got an interview question about a word I’d never come across before.

The question asked if I was a plotter or a pantster.

Honestly, I thought this was a variance of the “boxers or briefs” question every politician seems to get (it’s boxer briefs, by the way).

Turns out, after a Google search, I was being asked if I plotted or planned my books ahead of time or just winged it, on the fly.

Of course, I’m a pantster. I rarely make up plots ahead of time. I try, don’t get me wrong. But, I usually run out of steam. I get so anxious to get my thoughts down on paper or to a Word file, that I stop plotting and type as I make it up in my head. Typing 70 words a minute helps but I still can’t keep up with my thoughts.

Do I recommend being a pantster? Not really.

It’s not for everybody. In fact, I’d say it’s not for most people. It’s for me because I’ve honed the skill working as a journalist for three decades. Especially as a sports writer, I often have to type quickly to meet tight deadlines. That means I’m creating the article in my mind as I type.

The habit carries over to my fiction. Unfortunately, I think it’s also why tend to edit my work 20 or 30 times. Because, somewhere under a bus are a slew of plot points I missed or left in the dust. That can create plot holes big enough to qualify for one of those awful Canadian-made Lifetime movies.

If you want my advice, stick to plotting. It gives you a chance to fully develop your characters before hand. It also lets you create the time and place and be accurate with your geography. If there’s one thing I wish I could change about my writing, it’s having to stop in the middle of a scene to research something to make sure I get it right. That’s like stopping in the middle of sex to read the directions for putting on a condom correctly. Yes, it’s very important and must be done the right way, but good luck getting back to the good place you were at before you stopped.

But, this is a free country. So, it’s your choice.

Plotter or pantster? Which one are you?

The Blackness (or "Lackness") of Space

Many people have questioned why I, a black man, picked science fiction as a genre to ply my writing talents.

After all, in the long history of science fiction from Jules Verne and H.G. Wells up to the likes of David Weber, you can count the major black science fiction writers on one hand.

In fact, let’s try it:

1)     GeorgeSchuyler 

2)     Samuel R.Delany 

3)     Octavia Butler  

4)     Steven Barnes 

5)     John Faucette 

Note: Nos. 1, 3 and 5 are dead.

You can throw in a few more names that have dabbled in science fiction once or twice or are trying to get into the game such as Tananarive Due (Barnes’ wife); Walter Mosley, who took time off from Easy Rawlins to pen Futureland and The Wave; comic book writer Kevin Grevioux; Nnedi Okorafor; Billy Dee Williams, and, of course, yours truly.

When you see such a short list, it makes you wonder why any self-respecting African-American would take up anything in this genre. Maybe because being tossed a bone called Lando Calrissian wasn’t enough. Or maybe because I’m still pissed that all the black guys who survived Lucifer’s Hammer became marauding cannibals (except the one token black guy among the heroic white people). Ironically, Barnes got his start by co-writing with that novel’s authors.

Anyway, I write in the genre because I like it. Yeah, it’s racist at times and sometimes just plain vanilla (like NASA until Guion Bluford came along). But, it has its merits and appeal.

That was all that was needed for an eager 10-year old kid who took to writing because of the schlock movies on Creature Double Feature. Writing turned out to be tougher than I thought, as evidenced by this exciting dialogue: “Left right rudder! Left right rudder, aye, sir!” (that might have been the day I mixed Pop Rocks and pixie sticks with Coca-Cola and Tang).

Thank goodness for the grand masters of the Golden Age of Science Fiction.

When I first went to the West Medford (Mass.) Public Library in my elementary school years, I started reading hot rod books and mysteries. You see, we had yearly fundraisers to battle muscular dystrophy by getting people to sponsor us for each book we read. I usually averaged 30-35 books during the read-a-thon. (By the way, every kid participated and their parents helped out).

After tiring of the juvenile delinquent hot rod books, I wanted something new and Robert Heinlein’s Have Space Suit, Will Travel fit the bill. The cover art caught my eye (future writers, please pay attention to your cover art).

Once I read the book, it blew me away. I had to get more and, when West Medford public library couldn’t help me, I hoofed it five miles to the main Medford public library. I got what I needed -- Isaac Asimov, L. Ron Hubbard, Lester Del Rey, Philip K. Dick, Ray Bradbury, A.E. Van Vogt, Theodore Sturgeon, Richard Matheson.

Science fiction stimulates my creative nature. I’ve got all these fantastic ideas in my head. Some of them are probably crazy but it’s my job as a science fiction writer to put these ideas out to the public.

Many of society’s most useful inventions came from the minds of science fiction writers. Here’s a brief list of inventions from science fiction stories that became reality: Water beds, mobile phones, iPads/tablets, teleconferencing, genetic engineering, artificial intelligence, robots, TV newscasts, satellites, automatic doors, escalators, lasers, tasers, voicemail, the Internet, radar, and nuclear weapons.

A flying pinto? Really?

Much better.

Heck, we even have flying cars now.

And science fiction has been a great predictor of the future. George Orwell might have been off by about two decades but is there anyone who doesn’t think we’ve entered the age of Big Brother, with the Patriot Act, legal invasions of privacy, hacking, wiretaps and security cameras everywhere?

Considering the hate dominating the comments section of Yahoo! news, someone has to predict a brighter future.

I’d like to contribute to this illustrious list of inventions and predictions. And someone needs to remind readers that black people do exist in the science fiction world. We have made a significant contribution to American society. Without us, there might be no traffic lights, gas masks, plasma, subways or farm equipment. I have no doubt that African-Americans can contribute to the future as well.

That means someone has to insert that voice into the future.

God willing and the river don’t rise (any higher), I’ll do just that.

Clearing the Resolution on My Resolutions

This week, we are giving updates for the resolutions we set for 2011.

So, let the games begin:

A)    To be physically published, not just in e-book form on Smashwords. As of now, Hunters is being prepped for an August release date through Red Hot Publishing (provided I don’t drive the editors to drink).

B)    To find regular employment (no-brainer there) Still a no-go in that department, but I have had some interviews. So, I’ll hang in there and get as much writing done as I can before life intrudes again.

C) Be more sociable and not live vicariously through others. Since I have now added Free Fantastical Fiction and Digital Digest to my plate, this resolution is shot to hell.

An "Odd Life" with Jennifer Garner

D) Get into more movies in meatier roles. Well, I did, sort of. I played a homeless man and, later, a food server behind Keke Palmer in Joyful Noise with Queen Latifah and Dolly Parton. I was a news reporter (for a change) in Steven Soderbergh’s Contagion. I played a detective and got to see Minnie Driver in a killer mini red dress and red stilettos in Hail Mary and, finally, I played seven different background roles in The Odd Life of Timothy Green with Jennifer Garner and director Peter Hedges for Disney.

E) Actually read the blogs of all my fellow writers and not skip over the ones written by people who think two initials substitute for first names. Everyone thinks I’m reading their stuff, so I must be.

F) Be even more sociable than before. Just realized that this is the same as C, so I'll change it to a diet resolution. I have dropped from 254 down to 224. In all fairness, 20 of those pounds came when I got the initial edits back on Hunters from C.J.'s editors.

G) Stop letting myself get so riled up by the comments on Yahoo! News. I’m pretty sure the next president will not unite the country because I do not want to be near any of these pinheaded, extremist, racist, one-dimensional, inbred, moronic pricks (pardon my English). Bad luck with this one. I still get pissed off.

H) Change the pictures in my profiles for Examiner.com, FaceBook, MySpace and Wicked Writers. For some reason, certain people think I look like I’m about to either kick someone’s ass or complete a contract hit. Okay, I actually did put up a new picture. Why I look happier when I was at a funeral is beyond me.

You can check back in December to see my further progress, but I’m thinking I’ll still be the same cynical, sarcastic jackwagon. But, I’ll be just as funny.

Sometimes, It Pays to Know What You're Doing

This week’s topic asked us to reminisce a bit about our very first manuscript. Talk about making the old noggin work overtime. I was going to write about a short story called The Root that I did back in 1993, but then it occurred to me that the topic didn’t specify what kind of manuscript.

So, instead, let me tell you about The Ghost.

You have to understand that I’ve only really gotten into horror writing over the past few years. But, in 1982, I wrote a play about a ghost. Right off the bat, you can see the oddity – I wrote a play about a ghost.

It was 1982. My mother brought home information from the Boston branch of the NAACP concerning the ACT-SO regional competition.

ACT-SO stands for “Academic, Cultural, Technological & Scientific Olympics,” and is a yearlong program that encourages young African-Americans to test the limits of their minds versus their bodies. The competition began in 1978 and continues to this day.

Anyway, being a skinny kid who clearly wasn’t going to be the next Bill Russell or Jim Rice or Sam “The Bam” Cunningham, I was glad to enter it.

I tried out initially for the art category and drew a nice picture of a giant lobster attacking Navy ships in Boston Harbor (can anyone tell I watched Gaiking as a kid?).

I tried the short story category as well because that was my forte (or so I thought). I submitted a story based on the grade Z sci-fi flicks I watched on Creature Double Feature on Saturday afternoons.

Then, I saw that the one-act play category was open and only had a few entrants. I entered based on the fact that maybe I had a better chance of placing with less competition. And, since no one's asking, that was the same reason that led me to do archery and golf in college.

Anyay, I immediately ran into trouble as I didn’t know how to write a play. I hadn’t even gotten to the stage (no pun intended) of English class when you have to recite that damned “Friends, Romans, countrymen” speech. I had been to one-act plays on field trips but seeing is not writing (yes, I know it contradicts my writing stories based on cheesy sci-fi movies, but I was a kid; don't confuse me with the facts).

All wasn't lost, though. It was 1982 and there were still plenty of libraries. My skinny legs still worked and I took myself to the main branch of the Medford Public Library. It provided me with books on play writing and ghosts. So, I read and studied and practiced. Keep in mind that I had procrastinated because play writing was not my strong suit. Most of my time had gone into the art and that awful short story. Finally, I did get serious when I realized it was going to be out there for everyone to see.

I let my brothers and my mother read it. From my brothers’ reaction, you’d have thought I just fed them liver and beets. My mom’s reaction wasn’t that bad, but she had one of those looks parents give their kids when they don’t want to hurt their feelings. You know, the kind that makes them either roll their eyes so they can see their brain or causes them to think about enrolling you in vocational school.

With not much time left, I did a major rewrite. Ironically, I fell back on Creature Double Feature. In this case, I "borrowed" from Roger Corman’s famous versions of Edgar Allan Poe with Vincent Price. Still not sure about the final product, I submitted the final version without showing it to anybody.

Yeah, I was deathly afraid of that play getting ripped to shreds. I didn't even want to look at the results. Instead, I focused on my “superior” artwork and the aforementioned short story.

At the end of the competition, all us kids from Medford (including my twin brother Gary, as well as future Grammy-nominated and “Arsenio Hall Show” jazz drummer Terri Lyne Carrington) gathered for the posted results. 

As the competition was only in its fifth year, there was no big award ceremony. The results were printed on one of the newest dot matrix printers which, back in '82, was considered a milestone over the mimeograph machines (yes, I'm old enough to have used a mimeograph machine; one of these days, I'll tell you all about it, along with x-acto knives and Spray Mount).

I checked the Short Story category and my name was so far down on the list that I had to shoo away the ants so I could read it. The Art category was better as I was the fifth or sixth name under “honorable mention.”

Then, on a whim, I glanced at the “One-Act Play” category. My eyes went wide. I was in second place! And, better yet, I had beaten out 10 other people.

And, yet, I had to kick myself. Only gold medal winners moved on to the nationals (for Medford that year, it was Terri Lyne and some guy in sculpture). What might have happened had I put more time into what I had written? Might I have gone on to the Nationals? Now, the winner’s play was a lot better than mine, but, still, I could only wonder what might have been.

The lesson I gained (and have had to relearn from time to time) is to put in the best effort possible and submit your best work.

Sadly, The Ghost was the first and last play I have ever written. When I moved to Texas, “One-Act Play” was a major extracurricular activity in the University Interscholastic League (UIL), which governed high school extracurricular activity in Texas. Students there were far ahead of me, so I fell back on my journalism and science fiction.

I still remember my play, though. I don’t know what became of it because it was typewritten and I didn’t make a copy. But, it’s the one piece of prose I clearly remember and cherish from my childhood. Well, that and “left right rudder,” but that’s a blog for another time.

Website Attraction: Love Or Bust At First Sight

Honestly, I have not been able to pinpoint why I am attracted to certain websites and not others. I get recommendations to try different websites, especially those within my fields of interest – writing, science fiction, triple…eh, I mean mature entertainment.

I don’t go with most of them because they fail to catch my interest. Sorry, but at my age (43), MILFs has an entirely different meaning (and, no, I’m not going to show it -- a year ago, I might have, but I think I've finally given in to the invisible daggers coming from C.J., Ana and J.D.).

At the same time, intros to websites by well-meaning writers from New Jersey often get the precursory look (just to be civil) and then, bam, I block the site. Psst: Don’t tell the New Jerseyite I said that.

If I had to sit down and figure out some do’s and don’ts for website attraction, I’d sit down and figure them out. Well, actually, I am sitting down and figuring. Go figure.

Life does imitate art.

Anyway, a fellow Wicked Writer mentioned that she does not like to hear music on a website, such as the personal profile pages of MySpace. I agree with her, although I do have music on my page. The music reflects my tastes, but often leaves bad taste in the mouths of others. I guess a profile list of ICP, Annie Lennox, Norah Jones, Lena Horne, Sarah Vaughn, Ol’ Dirty Bastard, Jaheim, Poor Righteous Teachers, John Carpenter, Doris Day, Jane Monheit, Sade and Jana Mashonee can be confusing for anyone trying to figure out my mental state.

Personally, I think you should either pick some neutral songs that will appeal to a wide audience or stick with one genre. That way your visitors won’t be jarred senseless when Into the West is suddenly followed by Hokus Pokus and then by Kristy McNichol.

Hint: I like my music the way I like my women – ................................hmm, don’t know where I’m going with this.

Where was I?

Secondly, the site has got to catch my interest almost instantly. Perhaps this reflects my journalism background where a story has to grab readers’ attention spans within the first two or three paragraphs. This is why many of my posts begin with some form of humor – not particularly funny, but light-hearted.

Third, the site has got to not overwhelm me. You know what I’m talking about. Those FB and MySpace profiles filled with so much art and background that you can’t see the words. Apparently, there are pros out there who will jazz up your web pages to catch attention. I would not go for it because they seem to throw everything in there. Even KISS would say it’s too much.

Trying to imagine what the page looked like before it got all tricked up is like comparing Lady GaGa with Stefani Joanne Angelina Germanotta. 

Finally, the website must be finished. I know this from experience as I tried to set up my own author page and even put the address on business cards. I no longer hand out those cards (fortunately, it was because the card company misspelled “Smith”).

But, how many times have you been directed to a website that said “Under Construction – Be Back Real Soon”?

Reminds me of the Luby’s Cafeteria just off Northeast Loop 820 and Beach Street in Fort Worth. There was a sign in a vacant lot that said “ Luby’s Coming Soon.” The sign was there for four years before any construction began and another year during construction. The IHOP on the other side of the freeway did gangbuster business with people frustrated by the delay.

To make a long story short (too late), in order to get my interest at a website:

1)      Either kill the music or go with something akin to Muzak

2)     Get my attention quick. Use humor, interesting pictures (like a guy being beaten to death with his own arms), etc.

3)     Don’t overwhelm me with useless crap, and

4)     Make sure the site is finished before advertising it

Oh, I forgot one thing:

Please, oh please, stop putting your kids on your website. They may be the cutest kids in the world, but, although I have no interest in them, there are those online who do. I keep dreading that “ripped from the headlines” storyline appearing on Law & Order: SVU.

Now on to reconstructing my author page so I can make up new business cards.