Labotomy of a Writer

I told myself that when I started this blog I was not going to do interviews since so many other blogs did them. However, I could not help but to talk about this guy!

I met Greg when he enrolled as a student in the Novel class at The Writer's Academy. He has been a wonderful student! He is an amazing writer and I often wonder why he enrolled as I don't feel I provided much help. I'm honored to have met such a great writer and person.

Let me thank you, Anastasia, for inviting me to do this. As a journalist, I’m not used to being on the receiving end of an interview.

It's my pleasure Greg. Why don't you tell us a little about yourself.

I was born in Somerville, Massachusetts and raised in historic Medford, Massachusetts (unofficially the 7th oldest town in America; you may also remember it from “The Midnight Ride of Paul Revere”). I moved to Euless, Texas in 1982, got my B.A. in Journalism from Prairie View A&M University; got commissioned in the U.S. Navy; served in Japan aboard 7th Fleet flagship USS Blue Ridge (LCC-19); fought Saddam in Desert Shield/Desert Storm (not physically but against Exocet missiles, mines and SCUDs), and worked some odd jobs when I got out of the Navy.

Eventually, I got back into journalism with JDTV, Inc., a magazine company as a sports editor. I then moved over to the Fort Worth Star-Telegram as a sports writer/copy editor/agate supervisor/feature writer. Since then, I’ve taught Hazardous Materials & Dangerous Goods training for American Airlines and currently cover Black College Sports for Examiner.com on a freelance basis.

Sounds like you've had lots of adventures! I know you're a sports writer but what made you decide to become a fiction writer?

Three words – “Creature Double Feature.” It was an anthology series on WLVI-56 in Boston back in the late 70s, that showed old grade B (and Z) sci-fi and horror flicks. My mother used to hate (still does, in fact) but my twin brother and I would not miss the show for the world. We’d stop playing outside to come in and watch it and my mother resigned herself to finding alternative entertainment for three hours ever Saturday.

As I got older, I realized how truly bad and cheesy those movies and I began working on creating better stories. And from what I’ve seen of the “original” movies on SyFy Channel, my work is far from finished.

Yes, I'm usually dissapointed by what the SyFy channel puts on sometimes. It's great that you're out there trying to write great Science Fiction. So, who gives you a bit of inspiration to write?

My original influences were Robert Heinlein, Lester Del Rey, Arthur C. Clarke and the writers of the Golden Age of Science Fiction – guys like Theodore Sturgeon (“Killdozer”) and A.E. Van Vogt and Edgar Rice Burroughs. I remember walking to the library in West Medford Square for their books and then, walking five miles to the main Medford library for even more books. In fact, I was lost almost half a day in the Sue Kellogg Library in Stone Mountain, Georgia where I live now.

Later, I began to add some influences, especially when I finally noticed that, in the future many science fiction books and movies were set in, there didn’t seem to be too many black people. So, I began to read Octavia Butler (“Lilith’s Brood,” “Xenogenesis”), Samuel Delaney (“Triton,” “Dahlgren”), Kim Stanley Robinson (“Red Mars,” “Green Mars”) and Steven Barnes (“Dream Park”).

My best find was a trio of old science fiction classics called “Black No More,” “Black Empire” and “Black Internationale” by legendary black journalism pioneer George Schuyler. Turns out he’s a distant relative of mine. So, his books are in my collection.

You seem to have some strong influences, which is good for any artist! Now, I know that you are published through sports writing, short story publications, and a few novels. How has life changed since you've been published?

Being published has given me a big lift. I feel the successful culmination of a lot of hard work. At the very least, I can go to high school reunions and National Association of Black Journalists (NABJ) conventions as a published author.

Publishing books is only recent. My first published articles came from journalism. Having a byline, whether it was in a cable TV magazine for interviewing Arnold Palmer, online with boxer Larry Holmes or in the newspaper for covering a high school baseball game, I felt a certain amount of success and satisfaction. I mean, honestly, while science fiction is a specific genre for specific people, almost everybody likes sports.

My husband is so jealous that you interviewed Arnold Palmer by the way! Let's talk a bit about your writing specifically. How long does it take for you to write a novel and what's your schedule like for writing?

I have no firm timetable. Some writers like Stephen King have a set schedule – so many hours a day, so many days a week. Laurell K. Hamilton actually writes multiple books a day – for her Anita Blake and Meredith Gentry series. And don’t get me started on John Ringo and David Weber; those two are ridiculous with multiple projects.

The difference between them and me is – they have contracts. Editors and publishers are eagerly awaiting their books. Me? They don’t know me from the Gregory Smith who starred in Everwood (except that guy’s skin is a little lighter).

I try to write for at least an hour a day (on advice from Stephen King). But, it depends on how much writing I’ve already done, since I also do freelance sports. For example, now that college basketball tournament season is here, I tend to get a little burned out. So, I haven’t written any fiction for the last few days.

Writing for an hour everyday is a great exercise. I try to get two hours in but somedays it doesn't always work out like that! Do you character plot or have a detailed outline before you start writing or do you write on the fly?

I write fiction like I do sports – on the fly. I flesh out a beginning, middle and end in my mind, which leads to me tweaking everything fifty times. In school, I would write an “A-plus” essay or theme paper and then sheepishly go back to my desk to do the outline.

Alas, though, that approach has gotten me in trouble sometimes. There have been times when I’ve forgotten my characters’ names or where they were introduced in the book. With Land of the Blind, as you’ve seen, I had to add a list of characters for the readers (and, more importantly, for myself since I’d misplaced my original).

One thing I do plan, though, is research. I want to be like Michael Crichton and Tom Clancy and actually sound like I know what I’m writing about. Yeah, the technical stuff might have been boring in Crichton’s Andromeda Strain, but it was essential to understanding the story. I read J.R.R. Tolkien’s Lord of the Rings trilogy and I’m still fascinated about how he created Middle Earth and got everything to mesh together so fantastically well. George Lucas only wishes he could have done as well with the Star Wars settings.

Amazingly, despite so many years writing, I’ve only just recently concentrated heavily on character development. I had primarily written short stories and felt I didn’t need to go so in-depth with development but the novels, well, they’ve proven a different beast altogether. Cantrell Ryker and Lin Tang in Hunters; Pegram Kimble, Mia Tran and Cayce Colvin in Slow Boat to China, and Anna Velasquez, Kober Chiang and Devereaux Marshall Fox in Land of the Blind have all shown a great need for deep characterization.

I'm the same way, Greg. I write on the fly and then find out later that I probably should have had an ouline to help me when I got stuck! Since you have a few works out there in the process of being written, do you have a critique group, editor, or do you self edit?

Self-edit mostly. I joined Writing.com in 2007 and have been letting the members critique my stuff. I’ve gotten some good suggestions, too, for improvement. Recently, I joined Harley Palmer’s Writing Academy and she’s been instrumental in boosting my confidence (Sometimes, I swear she’s two different people, though).

In the past month, I’ve also joined sites like Goodreads and Authonomy to try to get some more critiques.

Aww thanks for the compliment! I am glad I could help! And yes, I can be two different people sometimes - but I think all writers have a bit of split personality to them. You write in so many areas, what's the hardest part of writing that you've struggled with?

Character development. It’s hard coming up with new characters, especially the way I write. Though I can write a scenario featuring only a small cast of characters such as in my novella They Call the Wind Muryah, I tend to use a lot of people in most of my works. I try to think of how such a scenario would work in the real world. For instance, if giant spiders took over a town, like in my novella Crawl, wouldn’t the world – in this day of the Internet and 24 hours news coverage and camera phones – find out quick and, if they did, wouldn’t they send in the military? Or how can Devereaux Marshall Fox be the world’s most dangerous and hunted man without the whole world being involved?

Maybe I’ve bitten off more than I can chew.

Each character needs his or her own personality. One thing I tend to do is create a preliminary character list and then pretend it’s being made into a movie. I then try to think of the actors and actresses or friends or relatives who would be good for the role. Then, I create an amalgam of those people. Interestingly, a lot of celebs I crushed on as a kid creep into my characters – Lynda Carter, Lola Folana, Jayne Kennedy, Lindsay Wagner, Kristy McNichol, Tatum O’Neal, Nichelle Nichols, Kate Jackson, Etsuko Shihoma, Michelle Yeoh, Raquel Welch, etc.

On the other hand, physical characteristics for them give me fits. You can’t make them match too closely with real people, especially if they’re going to be bad guys or morons. The one exception is me. I use a lot of myself in my novels. You might notice someday that Marshall Fox and I have the same birth date, we both grew up in Medford and we both went to Prairie View A&M. You might also see that Cantrell Ryker’s humor is a lot like mine (though a lot of people might be asking “What humor?”).

You might also notice that the cities I live in feature prominently in my work. Hunters is set in Fort Worth, Texas, where I was living when I started writing it. Land of the Blind mentions Medford and Fort Worth. A sequel to Hunters will be set in Atlanta. Other items mention Yokosuka, Japan and San Diego, California.

Thank you SO much Greg for taking the time to answer my questions! It has been fun getting to know you a little bit more!

You all can find Greg:

Professionally -- Examiner.com under Black College Sports.

Fiction -- Smashwords (look for Gregory Marshall Smith)
Writing.com
Wicked Writers

Personal -- Facebook
Myspace
LinkedIn

Have any other writer, besides myself had this situation happen to them? I sure hope so.

I have 7 different novels, all in different stages of writing/revising. Last year I decided it was time to really focus on ONE novel and get it ready for querying this year. Sounds like a smart plan doesn't it? Well for me, apparantly it wasn't.

Something has happened to me, either 1-I chose the wrong story to focus on at the moment or 2-my muse does not like the idea of working on only one story at a time. I thought about this for the last week or so and tried to work on a different novel. It worked for a day or two then the muse went away again and starting thinking about something else.

So what am I to do? How can I get my mind to focus on one thing at a time? I'm not used to opperating like that! However, I feel it is a skill that I need to learn if I am going to make it in this writing world.

My brain suddenly (seriously just now) had the thought that I could continue the way I have been with my writing - skipping to whichever novel my muse wanted to work on that day, and then have plenty of novels to choose from when they were ready to send out into the world. ..... Yea I'll let you think about that one for a second too. .....

So what am I to do? Because I know when NaNo comes around in December, I'll punch out novel number 8!!! Why? I honestly couldn't tell you. My brain has some serious issues and my muse likes to exploit the fact that my brain is off kilter a bit.

I thought starting this blog would appease my brain for the need or want to skip around. Apparantly not!

Any advice from my fellow writers? Should I continue writing the way I always have (skipping around as it suited my muse) or should I try to force myself to learn to write a different way? A part of me doesn't think it's a good idea to "force" my writing into a new way - forcing writing to me seems to make the story lose something along the way. So why don't I just stick to doing it the way I always did? Well, I'm starting to think that I'll never get anything published if I do. I mean who else has SEVEN UNFINISHED novels?

*sigh* Frankly, I think I bit off more than I could chew this year and I just don't know how to fix it or make it better. Have any other writers been in this same predicament? How did you get out it? What did you decide and why?

Okay here is the winner (and only submission) to Deleted Scenes Week!

Mia wrote an adorable "interview" between two of her characters. (Okay, no, it wasn't actually a deleted scene but it was the only thing submitted people!)

You really should go read it on her blog Literary Jam and Tost : Aspiring Writer to Published Novelist. (I just love the name of her blog, by the way!)

Congratulations Mia!! As the winner, I will be glad to review the manuscript for your novel! Simply attach the word document in an email to me and I'll get started!

I'll be having another little contest like this one soon everyone, so keep watching!

Tomorrow morning I am going to talk to the Columbus Chamber of Commerce about starting my business. I am really excited! My wonderful husband is a business guru so he is going with me to make sure all the right questions get asked. (He's so sweet sometimes!)

They have this great thing, a "One Stop Shop" with lawyers, tax representatives, and other business 'helpers' there on hand to talk to - FOR FREE - about starting a business.

Hopefully, they'll clue me in on the best (and perhaps cheapest) way to pull this off. I will do it regardless, it's just a matter of when. The more cost it is, the longer it will take. So hopefully, I'll get in on a great 'deal' so to speak to get this up and running sooner!

I am really excited and nervous - but I am so glad this opportunity is there. Columbus is really good about supporting small businesses, so it's no surprise really that this program is there. I am just so lucky that I found it! I just happen to call the Chamber of Commerce and a wonderful woman told me about it. I never would have known if I hadn't picked up the phone!

So - to all my fellow authors, business people, and dreamers - pick up the phone!! You never what they will say on the other end!

**Originally posted on my other blog "Abyss of My Soul"**

We all learn in English class that sentence structure follows the order Subject - Verb - Object (or predicate). You can then add to that with modifying phrases and clauses. The problems come in when there are too many modifiers or when the modifiers are in the wrong place.

Subject-Verb Connections
In a sentence with a subject that contains a noun modified by a huge string of phrases and clauses before the verb is hard to read. (Take the previous sentence there as an obvious example.)

Sometimes this is easily fixed by rearranging the sentence. Other times, it may require starting over or changing part of the sentence entirely.

If we rewrote the beginning sentence for this section to rearrange all the phrases before the verb, you have something like this: A sentence is hard to read when there is a long string of modifiers before the verb. The point is still presented but in a much simpler way.

Writers should also avoid long-winded modifiers before the subject. If a reader can't find the subject in a sentence, it causes a pause. Granted most readers are not LOOKING for the subjects directly, but if they become confused with a long winded sentence, they are likely to stop reading. This problem can be fixed by splitting the sentence into two, getting rid of needless phrases, or moving a few of the phrases to the predicate.

This example comes from a great book I read, "Line by Line: How to Improve your own Writing" by Claire Kehrwald Cook. Still persisting almost twenty years, after the assassination, with its truth or falsehood probably never to be convincely proved despite the negative conclusion of repeated investigations, the rumor of a conspiracy to kill President Kennedy has fueled yet another work of fiction.

Hard to read isn't it? The book continues on with a possible solution by splitting the sentence into two: Despite the negative conclusions of repeated investigations, the rumor of a conspiracy to kill President Kennedy persists, probably never to be convincingly proved or disproved. Now, more than twenty years after the assassination, it has fueled yet another work of fiction.

Personally, I would go further to rephrase and move the ending clause in the first sentence: Despite the negative conclusions of repeated investigations, the rumor of a conspiracy to kill Present Kennedy persists. More than twenty years after the assassination, the inability to prove or disprove the rumors has fueled yet another work of fiction. (On a personal note, I think that "convincingly" is a terrible adverb, so I did not keep it in my rewrite. If you prefer, it could be still be placed after "to" and before "prove".)

Misinterpretation
Writers can mean one thing in a sentence but a reader will take it in an entirely different way. This is due to having ambiguous words or phrases that contradict each other or appear to modify the wrong word.

Other times, it can be a word used the wrong way. Take the following sentence: The writer condemns heavily modified subjects and objects that they muddy the sentence structure. Most would think that "objects" is another noun (subjects and objects) but actually it's a verb (objects to). Using a different word helps clear the confusion here so the sentence reads better: The writer condemns heavily modified subjects and argues that they muddy the sentence structure. You can also take out the second verb entirely and replace "and": The writer condemns heavily modified subjects because they muddy the sentence structure.

Object Placement
Confusion in a sentence can also occur between verb and object or between prepositional phrases and object. The connection may not be clear and these two can often occur together.

Take the following sentence: Please read and let me have your views on the attached memo. There can be two sentences here "Please read the attached memo. Let me have your views on the attached memo." In the example, it is hard for a reader to connect the verb "read" with it's object "memo" as another verb and a preposition are in the way. It would be much better to rewrite the sentence like this: Please read the attached memo and let me have you views. Or you could even take out "read" entirely as it is a given that in order give an opinion on something, you have to read it first. Please let me have your views on the attached memo.

When two prepositions share the same object, it can be a common mistake to "shorten" the sentence by not repeating the object twice. I make this mistake a lot myself as to me it sounds more professional to write a sentence this way - but it's not true! He always consulted with, and asked the approval of, his friends. The two phrases in this sentence are "of his friends" and "with his friends". It is much better to write the sentence this way He always consulted with his friends and asked their approval.

Fixing the Problem
Read your work out loud in one way to find these common mistakes. If it doesn't sound right, it needs to be fixed. Think of how the reader will interpret the sentence. YOU may know what you meant to say, but the reader may not. Put yourself in the mind of a reader when going over your work to make sure that they understand it too.

Don't expect or demand readers to search for your meaning behind a sentence. True, readers are not stupid and so by rights they can figure out what you meant. But why make them pause at one sentence after another to reread? These stops and distractions dissolve whatever spell you are trying to weave. "Efficient writing makes effortless reading." (Claire Kehrwald Cook)

Long sentences are caused by a number of reasons - weak verbs, too many nouns, and/or an overuse of prepositional phrases. In The Writer's Academy I see this happen a lot in the short story and novel classes. At the time, I did not realize why many of the sentences "sounded wrong" to me - they just did. After doing a bit of research, now I know WHY they sounded wrong.

Weak Verbs
I knew this part well as other reviewers often pointed out this same mistake in my own work. Inert verbs (to be - am, is, was, were, being, been), actionless verbs (have, exist, etc) or the passive form (to be and a past participle - is believed, was seen), and verbs ending with -ing, all lend to the same argument -- aggressive or action verbs are more often than not, better than passive or actionless verbs.

Am I saying that you need to go through and change every single passive verb to an agressive one? No. The point is not to have your manuscript riddeled with them. The rule I often make for myself is that I cannot have two sentences in a row that contain passive verbs. In an action scene (like a fight or chase), I don't allow passive verbs at all. Those are my personal rules, but they seem to work for me. I also do not pay much attention to passive/aggressive verbs in character dialogue, unless there is a certain feeling I wanted to create that was lost in using a passive verb. Otherwise, I let the characters talk the way they want.

Example
Passive: Running across the sand, Tim felt like his lungs were going to explode.
Active: Tim sprinted across the sand, his lungs ready to explode.

Bulky Nouns
Often times a sentence becomes filled with too many nouns or long Latinate ones (end -tion, -ment, and -ence). Too many nouns can make a sentence boring or even hard to understand. Often times nouns used the wrong way, causes a writer to compensate with extra adjectives and pronouns that are not needed.

Example
Bulky: During this blog post, I will provide information about wordy sentences and how to fix them, as there are many mistakes that can be made.
Simple: This blog post will provide information to fix common mistakes in sentence structure.

Overuse of Prepositional Phrases
Prepostionional phrases are easy to spot - just look for the preposition! For those that don't remember, a prepositional phrase is made of a preposition, its object and any assocated adjective or adverbs.

It is easy to over use prepostionial phrases when trying to describe something. However, the same detail or feelings can be shown without so many phrases in one sentence.

Example
Too much: Writers can often fall into a trap where they have too many of these phrases in one sentence in a row. (4 phrases)
Better: Writers trap themselves when they have too many phrases in one sentence. (1 phrase)

Fixing the Problem
How can you catch these sorts of things in your own writing? It takes a certain mind set.

The first thing I do, is put my book down for a few days. When I return, I try to think of it as someone else's work - not mine. I'm much harder on others in a critique than I am on myself! Pretend it's not your story. (That is extremely hard to do, I know - but it works!)

Word has a great feature that I use to highlight the passive verbs. Then I choose a different color to highlight prepositions. I don't use this for nouns, I simply keep a close eye out when reading.

Instead of just reading the manuscript like I would a book I pulled from the shelf, I read it one sentence at a time. Sounds like normal reading right? Wrong! I mean that I read one sentence, then think about it. I ask myself "Can I make this sound better? Is there something here that shouldn't be (like too many nouns or phrases)? Is there something missing? If I answer no to all the questions, I read the second sentence and repeat the process.

It takes a long time to do it that way, but I find it is best to really catch the mistakes that are often hidden. Sometimes, I'll read out loud. Hearing the sentence aloud instead of just in my head, makes a huge difference in the way a sentence sounds. That can really help to find mistakes - especially if you know something is wrong, but you don't know what.

Of course, it never hurts to have someone else read your work too!