----- Original Message ----- From: "Karin Montin" <
kmontin@sympatico.ca> To: <
rara-avis-l@yahoogroups.com> Sent: Sunday, May 29,
2005 6:53 AM Subject: RARA-AVIS: D. Lynds: Work habits
>Dear Karin,
>
I'll take your questions a few at a
time.
> Since you don't mind answering questions, here are a
few more before the
month ends. First I should say that I had never read any of
your books, but because of your visit here I read Cassandra
in Red, featuring Dan Fortune, and Cadillac Cowboy, featuring
Ford Morgan. I really liked the character of Dan Fortune; I
especially liked the details of his home life (the PI as
normal human being). The ecological concerns of Cadillac
Cowboy struck a chord with me. I will be looking for books
under some of your other names.
Thanks for reading Cassandra and
Cowboy. Now, let me ask YOU a question. These books were
published at least ten years ago. I'd like to know what you
thought of my innovations to the detective novel in those
books? (If ecology is your thing, try my Mark Sadler novel
CIRCLE OF FIRE, written back in the early Seventies.)
>
> My questions have to do with your approach to
writing as work: Do you work
certain hours every day? Do you take a regular vacation? Or
are you always on the job?
>
I published my first work of fiction
outside a college lit mag in 1948. It was a poem. That's a
long time ago. Which means I have changed my approach to
writing more than once. At first, of course, I wrote largely
at night after work (I was an editor of trade magazines in
the chemical industry in New York). I wrote damn near every
night, poems and short stories. It probably cost me my first
wife. I wrote my first three novels at night working a
full-time job. During this period I wrote whenever I could
while having a rather hectic social life in New York. (The
world and life are always battling with the time to
write.)
After publishing my first two novels,
I quit my day job, married my third wife, and became a
more-or-less full time writer. When that happened, writing
became my job and I worked at it as close to 24/7 as is
humanly possible (the world and life again.) from then until
today.
The last true vacation I had, or
wanted, was in 1964. I use Bouchercons, Left Coasts,
festivals in Europe---writing festivals, that is--- as
vacations. The last few years I have had health problems, but
I still write at every possible moment. It's all I ever
wanted to do with my life---in addition, of course, to the
general human needs.
(John D. MacDonald once said he wrote
seven days a week until 5 P.M because it was the only thing
he could think of worth doing before five P.M. After 5 P.M.
he knew exactly what to do.)
When you get story ideas, do you immediately have your
protaganist in mind, or do you ever change it as you go
along? Do you write successive drafts, or do you polish as
you write?
Obviously when writing series novels
I have my protagonist before I start. If you mean the
protagonist other than the detective, I know that too. I am
primarily a theme writer---I write my stories because they
say something to me, and I hope to the reader, about the
human condition in its many forms. So I know my major
characters and what is going to happen to them from the
start. Minor characters appear as they are needed, and tell
me who and what they are as I write them. Do my major
characters ever change as I write? Sure, sometimes. The book
will tell me. Again, as a theme writer I know the ending, but
exactly how it plays out reveals itself to me as I
write.
When I started out in the hardboiled
field all the books were written in one draft, edited,
polished, changed, and published in a single draft, with, of
course, editorial input from the publisher, sometimes
extensive, but usually minor. Since I stopped writing
anything but Michael Collins and Dennis Lynds, I have written
at least two drafts of each book, sometimes more. In a very
real way a book isn't written it's rewritten. Rewriting is my
favorite part of writing. My short stories go through at
least two drafts, often many more than that.
The thriller I finished a few months
ago, THE CEO, went through so many drafts and took so many
years I can fill a shed with the various rewrites. That was
because the thriller style wasn't and isn't natural to me, I
had to learn painfully as I went along. That was NOT fun. (Of
course, all that time I was also cowriting big works-for-hire
because we needed the money.)
Hope that answers all your questions,
and thanks for asking. I'd still like to know what you
thought of all in innovations in the two books you
read.
Best,
Dennis-Michael
------------------------ Yahoo! Groups Sponsor
--------------------~--> What would our lives be like
without music, dance, and theater? Donate or volunteer in the
arts today at Network for Good!
http://us.click.yahoo.com/pkgkPB/SOnJAA/Zx0JAA/kqIolB/TM
--------------------------------------------------------------------~->
RARA-AVIS home page: http://www.miskatonic.org/rara-avis/
Yahoo! Groups Links
<*> To visit your group on the web, go to:
http://groups.yahoo.com/group/rara-avis-l/
<*> To unsubscribe from this group, send an email
to:
rara-avis-l-unsubscribe@yahoogroups.com
<*> Your use of Yahoo! Groups is subject to:
http://docs.yahoo.com/info/terms/
This archive was generated by hypermail 2b29 : 29 May 2005 EDT