Ask the Author: Jeff Bond
Answered Questions (3)
Jeff Bond
Thanks for your question — and for riding along with Durwood to Chickasaw! You’re right that I intentionally avoided swearing in the story, and in fact, I’ve done the same in my last four books. (My debut, The Winner Maker, contains a handful of obscenities.) I didn’t start this practice out of any overarching philosophy or grand moral conviction. Simply, I realized that profanity bothered some readers, and decided I could write intense — or angry, or vile, etc — dialog perfectly well without it.
Now, I’ll admit that when I hear a reviewer use the phrase “take pains to,” it gives me pause. I don’t like breaking the spell in my fiction and having a reader’s attention drawn to a stylistic decision. Ultimately, I’ve chosen to accept a few minor awkwardnesses in exchange for certain readers’ comfort.
Another point to make is that, as you hinted, the type of book matters. The Third Chance Enterprises series has a big, fun, over-the-top vibe, very much in the Indiana Jones tradition, and I didn’t feel like a gritty, ultra-realistic style of language suited it. And, yes, Durwood Oak Jones being the point-of-view character made a somewhat chaste approach even more natural.
My current work in progress comes from my Franklin series, which is more literary/slice-of-life in nature. (Only a short story, The Cleaner, is available to date.) I’m actually leaning towards breaking my “no swear” streak for just that reason: the book’s style demands it. Realism is so important to the story’s artistic success that I think I’ll want profanity in those one or two spots where its rawness is truly required.
It’ll still just be one or two, though.
Now, I’ll admit that when I hear a reviewer use the phrase “take pains to,” it gives me pause. I don’t like breaking the spell in my fiction and having a reader’s attention drawn to a stylistic decision. Ultimately, I’ve chosen to accept a few minor awkwardnesses in exchange for certain readers’ comfort.
Another point to make is that, as you hinted, the type of book matters. The Third Chance Enterprises series has a big, fun, over-the-top vibe, very much in the Indiana Jones tradition, and I didn’t feel like a gritty, ultra-realistic style of language suited it. And, yes, Durwood Oak Jones being the point-of-view character made a somewhat chaste approach even more natural.
My current work in progress comes from my Franklin series, which is more literary/slice-of-life in nature. (Only a short story, The Cleaner, is available to date.) I’m actually leaning towards breaking my “no swear” streak for just that reason: the book’s style demands it. Realism is so important to the story’s artistic success that I think I’ll want profanity in those one or two spots where its rawness is truly required.
It’ll still just be one or two, though.
Jeff Bond
I've always been interested in ambition and the ways it affects people -- both positively and negatively, and that concern is central to The Winner Maker.
On the specific origin of "Winner" -- as a sixteen-year-old, I had a JV basketball coach tell me after a tough loss, "You're a winner. And I'll stick my neck out for you anytime." The coach wasn't much like Coach Fiske, in fact (though I will occasionally use an actual person as a jumping-off point for a character, by the time the plot is written, she/he never much resembles the original), but that sentiment, and how it made me feel, stayed with me.
Teachers and coaches have tremendous impact -- and the title character from The Winner Maker, Bob Fiske, takes this to an extreme.
On the specific origin of "Winner" -- as a sixteen-year-old, I had a JV basketball coach tell me after a tough loss, "You're a winner. And I'll stick my neck out for you anytime." The coach wasn't much like Coach Fiske, in fact (though I will occasionally use an actual person as a jumping-off point for a character, by the time the plot is written, she/he never much resembles the original), but that sentiment, and how it made me feel, stayed with me.
Teachers and coaches have tremendous impact -- and the title character from The Winner Maker, Bob Fiske, takes this to an extreme.
Jeff Bond
I never get terrible writer's block -- that kind we all fear where you just can't put anything on the page -- but there are certainly times when the words aren't flowing as readily as I'd like, or when my inner critic is giving me an especially hard time. I have a couple methods for getting past these.
The first is to switch projects for, say, an afternoon. I especially enjoy high-level plotting and dreaming up new stories, so I'll usually move to a project that's in an earlier phase of drafting. After spending a little time in a more blue-sky, anything-is-possible mode, I usually come back to the previous work refreshed.
My other method is to step back from whatever scene I'm writing and ask myself, "What excites me here?" Regardless of where I am in a story, I feel like each scene should have one or two elements that I -- and, hopefully, my readers -- absolutely love. Maybe it's the introduction of a new character, or setting, or some social dynamic we all recognize but perhaps haven't read about. If I take a moment and designate which elements I love in a particular scene (and if there aren't any, add some of course!), that generally makes the whole thing come out a lot easier.
The first is to switch projects for, say, an afternoon. I especially enjoy high-level plotting and dreaming up new stories, so I'll usually move to a project that's in an earlier phase of drafting. After spending a little time in a more blue-sky, anything-is-possible mode, I usually come back to the previous work refreshed.
My other method is to step back from whatever scene I'm writing and ask myself, "What excites me here?" Regardless of where I am in a story, I feel like each scene should have one or two elements that I -- and, hopefully, my readers -- absolutely love. Maybe it's the introduction of a new character, or setting, or some social dynamic we all recognize but perhaps haven't read about. If I take a moment and designate which elements I love in a particular scene (and if there aren't any, add some of course!), that generally makes the whole thing come out a lot easier.
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