Writing Bullshit

Is this what your outline looks like?

NOT where I write...

by Tom Schreck

There's a lot of bullshit communicated about successfully writing a novel. If you heed much of it you'll get paralyzed and never be able to finish your own work of fiction.

The truth is that writing a book isn't joining the Marines, it isn't Transcendental Meditation nor is it discovering cold fusion. It has more to do with cleaning your basement, building a bird house or creating a garden in your backyard.

In other words it involves some planning, some trial and error and quite a bit of time on task.

It doesn't require any of this crap:

* Large amounts of uninterrupted time in a beautiful oak paneled office.

I write before my day job in between hound bays and getting up every 7 minutes to act as the uniformed doorman for my three four legged VIPs.

* You must have a completely formed idea, outlined neatly with Roman numerals, bullet points and color coded categories.

Actually, you need an idea. Then another idea of where to go. Do that for 300 pages and you get a book.

* You can't start your book until you go on police ride-a-longs, volunteer on the local SWAT team or travel to Rome to interview the custodian at the Vatican for your story background.

This is fiction. You make this shit up. Read an article, go to Wikipedia and then start writing.

* You must write only when the muse comes to visit you.

Good luck with that. It's plain crap.

* You can't finish because you're blocked.

You're not a colon and you don't get blocked. You stop working. If what comes next to you isn't obvious then you have to problem solve, do some trial and error and rewrite.

It's work.

Tom Schreck writes the Duffy Dombrowski Series and the stand alone thriller GETTING DUNN. TKO is the #1 boxing book on Amazon Kindle.

Why Fighting is Important

Isn’t life a fight for all of us to one degree or another?

And we don’t win all of those fights and even the ones that we win often leave us marked up, sore and exhausted.  I box as a hobby and part of the reason I do it is because it is a metaphor for everything else I do in life.

I’ve fought for 34 years, first getting my black belt in Tae Kwon Do and then moving on to boxing. I’m glad I can defend myself and I think it is important for everyone to know how to throw a punch or kick if they have to.

But these aren’t the main reasons I fight.

I do it because it still scares me and I do it because it teaches me over and over again that I can take pain if I have to.

http://tinyurl.com/Duffyontheropes

The more pain I can endure, the more I can get out of life. The more I can put off the immediate gratification addiction the more long-term hedonism I can enjoy. Getting hit, feeling it and dealing with it, let’s me know I am not a slave to always feeling good.

Doing what scares me over and over teaches me that I can deal with emotions I don’t like and move forward anyway.

My character, Duffy, lives by this.  He’s scared to fight but terrified of getting too old not to fight. In my-work-in-progress he’s sent in to crisis when it looks like boxing is going to be taken away from him. He knows it’s who he is not just what he does and when that’s taken from him he realizes he might not be any different than anyone else.

I judge pro boxing and last Friday I did the ESPN fights. In two of the bouts guys took beatings that no reasonable person would ever endure. When the fights were stopped by the referee both fighters complained. They wanted to keep going.

They were both bleeding from several facial lacerations and their eyes were swollen. I watched the replay of the fights and television homogenizes the brutality of the sport. Up close it’s real trauma, real blood and real hurt.

To do that willingly you have to be special. Some might even say insane.

But if you’ve done it you know that there is something intoxicating about it.

Facing what scares you and keeping on when you’re hurt is its own special high.

You don't have to fight to get this but for me it is the cleanest of the metaphors.

What do you do?

Judging a Book by the Cover

Tom Schreck

I remember it like it was yesterday.

I was at the Baltimore Bouchercon sitting having beers with my buddy and mystery writer extraordinaire, Henry Perez.

"I read 'On The Ropes' and damn, Schreck, you can write," Henry said.

"Wow, thanks, Henry," I said.

"Yeah that was some dark shit."

"Dark? People usually tell me it's funny," I said. I hadn't heard "dark" before.

"A coerced mother-daughter internet sex ring isn't dark?" Henry said and took a sip off his Sam Adams.

I guess he had a point. Then he said something shocking.

"You gotta lose the dog on the cover, though. That's going to kill you."

"What? I love the hound." I thought everyone did.

"Yeah, he's great, Schreck, but you put a dog on the cover and everyone thinks you're a cozy writer. Let me tell you, you ain't a cozy writer." Henry took a self-congratulatory pull off his draft.

Fast forward six years and Thomas & Mercer releases the fourth in my series, "The Vegas Knockout." My editor told me when he signed me that we were losing the hound. I was bummed.

For a little while.

The book was released at the end of April.  On July 1 it was the number one rated hard-boiled mystery on Amazon.

The cover is a close up of a fighter getting punched in the face and spitting out his mouth guard.

Well, I got my rights back to my back list and in a joint effort with my literary agency, Irene Goodman, we're re-releasing the books with new gritty covers. In the first week "On the Ropes" with no advertising or buildup made it to the top 50 of the mystery sports genre six years after its original
release.

What do you think about covers? Which of my covers do you prefer and why? Even if you like the doggy one which one would you be more apt to buy?

Hired Gun: The Life of A Sparring Partner

by Tom Schreck, author of Getting Dunn and The Vegas Knockout

In my latest Duffy Dombrowski mystery, THE VEGAS KNOCKOUT,  Duff gets hired as the sparring partner for a Russian heavyweight in Las Vegas. I'm a pro fight judge and as a judge I'm around the game but I don't know a lot about the business end of hiring and working with sparring partners.

Luckily, Iceman John Scully, a retired world class fighter, who fought for the title a couple of times himself, helped me out. Scully still gets in the ring but most of his energy is around training fighters and working for ESPN doing boxing commentary.

Ice wouldn't be considered an average sparring partner. He was used by the very, very best in the game.

How do you get hired? Who makes the call?

ICE: Almost always it is a case of where the fighter or his managers gets a call from someone representing the fighter who needs the sparring. I can think of a few times when I made my own opportunities, though. Back in Atlantic City in 1992, for example, I ran into Jackie Kallen in the lobby of a hotel there and I told her if she ever needed sparring for James Toney I would be more than willing to take the trip. She took my number and a few months later she did call and I did end up going out to Michigan on two separate occasions to spar with the champ as a result of that.

How much sparring do you do?

ICE: I have always been one to do a lot of sparring, even when I didn't have a fight coming up. I didn't box as a job, as a means to make money. I boxed for the same reasons then that I do now to this day. Because I love to box. I sparred 711 rounds in 2009. That's about 200 rounds more than my previous high for one year. I've been sparring hundreds of rounds each year since 1984.

Not to be personal--but is the money good? Can guys make a living just being sparring partners?

ICE: Some guys, if they aren't married and don't have children, sure. I remember back when Tyson was champion there were certain heavyweights around who used to travel with him for five weeks at a time and they were making one thousand or two thousand a week plus all expenses paid. You do that three times a year, on top of all the other sparring you pick up in between and they were doing okay. Plus they often used to get opportunities to fight on his undercards and they made more money for that, too.

What are the sparring rules--do the champions treat partners well? Do they ever take cheap shots, wear lighter gloves? Hit off breaks, low etc...

ICE: I've never encountered anyone who was dirty like that, no. I mean, they know they have to treat these guys with some respect because otherwise they wont come back in the future and then they wont be able to get the work they need out of them. Every gym is different though. When I was with James Toney, for example, he likes to talk a lot of trash during the sparring and he never ever touched gloves before or after a round either. Most guys touch gloves but James, he never did. He liked to talk trash and make it rough on there. He wasn't friends during the sparring at all. Before and after he was your best friend but once we hit the gym it was all business.

Do you get treated with respect or are you treated as equipment?

ICE: I would say most guys who go to spar someone in a camp get treated with enough respect. I've seen occasions where the fighter wasn't exactly treated as one of the champ's best friends but he wasn't treated badly either. Sort of indifferent. For the most part it was fine. I can remember times going to spar with Vinny Pazienza and after the gym we'd stay and sit around talking for an hour about boxing. Another time he took me to his house and cooked dinner for Kevin Rooney and I. Now you may not get a home cooked meal out of most guys but for the most part they are at least cordial to the guys who come in to work with them.

Is it tough on the body...head?

ICE: It's tough on both, sure. These guys are world champions or top contenders, among the best in the entire world. They pay you to work with them and they want every pennies worth.

What's the psychology of it...what's it like going to work to fight the best p4p guy...all week long?

ICE: For me personally it was always a spectacular time. I loved every minute of it. I used to go box with some of the best guys on earth and I looked at it as an honor but also as a way to prove myself, either to the guy I was boxing or to myself. I've always been a fan first so getting to spar with an elite world champion on a regular basis was great for me in every way. I would take it seriously. Each night I would go back to my room and think long and hard about the sparring that day, what could I do better the next day. I was always trying to figure out how to win the rounds in my head. It makes you better, definitely. It puts you on a different mental level to know you're in there every day swapping shots with a legitimate world champion

I asked a question wrong...When you are working as a sparring partner how much sparring will you do? every day? How many rounds when you spar? is it always all out?

Ice:Every boxer is different. Some guys like to spar every day, some like to spar every other day. If they have several partners then you may only have to do 3 rounds in a day. Or if your work is better or if your style is more similar to the upcoming opponent than you will do more. I used to spar ten rounds regularly with Vinny Pazienza. With James Toney I usually did six rounds at a time but the rounds with him were always longer than the standard three minutes.

Its not always all out but sometimes it is. Depends on the day and the guy. Vinny was always ready go all out on a moments notice for example.

Say Hello to Our New Blogger: Tom Schreck

Tom and Wilber

Our forensic specialist has left us, but Tom Schreck—author, boxing official, psychologist, professor, and Basset Hound rescuer—will be taking his spot. I've known Tom since my first Bouchercon in 2008 and he's one of the nicest people in the business. We were both with the small press that shall not be named, and now we're both Thomas & Mercer authors, and it's been fun to be on a parallel journey with him through this publishing world.

Tom writes the fast-paced Duffy Dombroski mysteries, which Publisher Weekly calls “fresh, intense, and funny” and he has a new standalone thriller, Getting Dunn. There are more interesting details about him in his bio at the bottom so don’t skip it. But here’s a snapshot of Tom in his own words.

L.J.: You’re a man of diverse talents, but seriously, how did you move from boxing to writing mysteries? 

Tom: Actually, I didn’t move at all. I’m still an active boxing judge. This past month was maybe busiest ever doing title fights. I did four world title fights and was on HBO twice and Showtime once in just a few short weeks. I just wish I could do my book covers or website in face paint so when the camera hit me I’d get some free promo time.

My main character is a social worker during the day and a pro fighter at night. Most pro boxers make very little money and have to have day gigs. Duffy isn’t world class, he’s what’s known in the trade as a “professional opponent.” That means he can fight but he’s sent in to lose to the best up-and -coming fighters.

I thought having a fighter who was there for the vulnerable ghetto people on his caseload would be an interesting protagonist. He’s sort of an amateur sleuth with an edge, a chip on his shoulder and a pretty good hook.

As for my own boxing—I still get in the ring but I’m very selective with who I let punch me in the face these days.

L.J.: Where do you fall in this new, messy publishing world? Indie, legacy, or a little of both?

Tom: Right now I’m in the “all of the above” category. I have two books with Thomas & Mercer, I have an indie short story collection, and I just got my rights back for my three previous Duffy books. They are going to be published cooperatively through the literary agency that reps me, The Irene Goodman Agency.

I, like most writers, have no idea what’s going to happen next but I’m thrilled at all the different places I’ve landed.

L.J. What can readers expect from you next?

Tom: I’m working on the fifth in the series that brings together the characters from my series with the characters from my standalone. It’s a fun but challenging project that keeps me getting up earlier and earlier to write. I still got the day gig as the communications director for a non-profit, and I teach college at night. Sometimes I get frustrated at how little time I have to write and other times I’m glad because my time management makes me get down to writing and not waste any time.

Bio: Tom Schreck is the author of five novels, including On the Ropes, TKO, Out Cold, The Vegas Knockout and Getting Dunn. He graduated from the University of Notre Dame and has a master's degree in psychology—and a black belt. He previously worked as the director of an inner-city drug clinic and today juggles several jobs: communications director for a program for people with disabilities, adjunct psychology professor, freelance writer, and world championship boxing official. He lives in Albany, New York, with his wife.

Publisher's Weekly calls the Duffy Series, "Fresh, intense and funny" and says, "Duffy delivers a knockout punch." Kirkus says they are "Refreshingly iconoclastic," and from Crimespree: "One of the five best books I read this year."

Read more about Tom on his blog or join him on Facebook and Twitter.

Punch Up Your Fight Scenes: Three Techniques To Knock Readers Out

by Tom Schreck, author of the Duffy Dombrowski Mysteries

My job as a world championship boxing judge gives me a unique perspective on sizing up literary fight scenes. I’m one of three people who decide who wins and who loses in fights with multi-million dollar purses. The boxing game isn’t kind—one loss sends a boxer to Palookaville, while a win means gargantuan paydays, endorsements and global recognition.

So, I’m not exaggerating when I say I have to know how to evaluate a fight.

That skill has helped me in my own mystery series, which, not coincidentally, features a pro boxer, Duffy Dombrowski, who works a day job as a social worker. Duffy fights in and out of the ring but unlike a lot of protagonists with fighting skills he loses his scuff ups almost as often as he wins.

Because of my job in the boxing business I had to make sure that my scenes were true to what really happens in the ring, the gym and out on the street. In the same way that a ring loss can have a fighter living Brando’s life in On the Waterfront, a poorly written fight scene can knock your mystery out and have acquisition editors giving you the ten count.

Here’s how you can keep your wordsmithing guard up and get your fight scenes off the ropes.

Think Less
Experienced fighters of all types are effective because their actions are reflexive. Joe Louis once said, “If you have to think about it it’s too late.” And the Brown Bomber was absolutely right.

Keep sentences short and on the action in fight scenes. Describe punches and blocks with an economy of words and keep the pace fast. Real life fights happen in a blink of an eye and fighters work at a different level of consciousness. They block a punch or throw a hook in the same way every time because they’ve trained their body for years to do just that.

Avoid long paragraphs that describe the fighters’ thought process or their fight strategy. Keep the action in the instant and make your narrative move as fast as the fighters.

Keep It Simple
If your goal is to nail the gritty realism of a fight keep the techniques the combatants utilize simple. Ask any master martial artist, pro fighter or even the new breed of ultimate fighter about what techniques work and they will tell you that it’s the basic moves executed perfectly.

So even though a jumping spinning axe kick followed by a reverse tiger’s claw to the victim’s Mastoid Process may sound cool you’re not going to win any reality points by over doing it. Instead go for exactly what a good cornerman tells his fighter: stiff jabs followed by hard crosses and the occasional hook.

Like all good writing you should look to make your verbs do the talking, not over the top adverbs and adjectives. Think of all the verbs that you can use for “punch” and use them to describe the type of punches that are thrown.

Write “He pushed a jab to my face,” not “His jab landed softly.” Stick to “I clubbed him to the top of his head,” rather than “I threw a looping punch to the top of his head.” Avoid the clichés to describe the action and find out how it really feels to get hit.

An expert fighter’s jabs feel like getting stabbed with a screwdriver. A body shot gives you the sense that someone squeezed your organs from the inside and a dinger to the temple will cause a flash of hot orange light that gets to you before the radiating pain spreads across your head and down your neck.

Know What Really Happens
Nothing kills a fight scene’s realism like a battle that just goes on too long or has one of its participants getting too beat up. Unless you want your prose to read like Tuesday Night’s WWE Pro Wrestling, don’t have two by fours broken over heads or fighters with broken ribs chasing the bad guys down after a 100 yard dash—it just can’t happen.

There’s a feeling you get when you get punched in the face and it’s different if it lands right on the nose, on the forehead or on the side of the head. A shot in the jaw will hurt in the ear and a hard blow to the ear will cause a sharp pain to run through your head. A punch to the stomach is different if it lands square in the breadbox, over the liver or just north to the solar plexus. The world famous kick to the groin is less effective in real life than you think because it’s actually a small target (make your own jokes) and even if you hit your target it takes a few minutes for the brain to register the pain there.

A shot to the head can hurt you more in the neck and the shoulders than in the ‘ol noggin. I got knocked down by a pro one time and I went down so fast that the punch didn’t have time to hurt my neck. I got up and felt a little drunk and uneasy. It’s a weird thing to explain but in some ways it wasn’t entirely unpleasant. That’s an experience you can only get from getting hit—or talking in depth to someone who gets hit on a regular basis.

Now, at the sound of the bell, get out off your corner, keep your hands up, protect yourself at all times and come out writing.

Tom Schreck has officiated the world heavyweight championship twice and is regularly seen judging bouts on Pay-Per-View, HBO and Showtime. He writes the Duffy Dombrowski Mysteries that feature a low level pro boxer who solves crimes. His newest release THE VEGAS KNOCKOUT, will be available on May 15. Visit tomschreck.com and “like” his fan page on Facebook at http://www.facebook.com/DuffyDombrowski for a chance to win a Kindle Fire.