Ask the Author: Neil Low
Answered Questions (6)
Neil Low
My advice to aspiring writers is the same as Stephen King’s in his book ON WRITING: “If you want to be a writer, you need to read!” Mr. King is completely right in that you cannot just hope to see your name on the spine of a book on a shelf, you have to fill your brain with new material that gives you the background to draw on when you write. You have to have something to say and should have a well-founded understanding of the genre you’re writing in, what the unwritten rules are and such.
I would also advise would-be writers to follow Ray Bradbury’s advice: “Write one short story every week. At the end of a year you will have 52 stories, and you know what? They won’t all be bad.” In other words, a writer needs to practice his/her craft, finding what works and what doesn’t. I would hope they are having friends and maybe teachers giving them feedback on what’s working and what isn’t in their stories. This would speed up their learning process. They need to understand and practice the rules of good grammar.
My own advice is: Become a master of your craft! In other words, an aspiring writer needs to work hard at learning the rules of writing, especially on how to edit their own work. A good illustration is that I have a friend/author who excels at formal business writing, but his attempt at fiction was a miserable failure. He hadn’t done anything to prepare himself for creative writing, which involves subtlety and symbolism. He didn’t have a touch for this. After writing a scene in a novel, he’d hammer the points home he hoped you had picked up on. This is insulting to sophisticated readers who want to feel engaged and challenged. For them, many times “less is more.” Before I went back to school to earn my degree, I faithfully read WRITER’S DIGEST and all the magazine articles I could find on writing and editing. Now, even with six of my novels in print, I continue to read all the blogs and posts I can find on writing. I’m continually trying to improve my knowledge base, and that’s what you should do.
I would also advise would-be writers to follow Ray Bradbury’s advice: “Write one short story every week. At the end of a year you will have 52 stories, and you know what? They won’t all be bad.” In other words, a writer needs to practice his/her craft, finding what works and what doesn’t. I would hope they are having friends and maybe teachers giving them feedback on what’s working and what isn’t in their stories. This would speed up their learning process. They need to understand and practice the rules of good grammar.
My own advice is: Become a master of your craft! In other words, an aspiring writer needs to work hard at learning the rules of writing, especially on how to edit their own work. A good illustration is that I have a friend/author who excels at formal business writing, but his attempt at fiction was a miserable failure. He hadn’t done anything to prepare himself for creative writing, which involves subtlety and symbolism. He didn’t have a touch for this. After writing a scene in a novel, he’d hammer the points home he hoped you had picked up on. This is insulting to sophisticated readers who want to feel engaged and challenged. For them, many times “less is more.” Before I went back to school to earn my degree, I faithfully read WRITER’S DIGEST and all the magazine articles I could find on writing and editing. Now, even with six of my novels in print, I continue to read all the blogs and posts I can find on writing. I’m continually trying to improve my knowledge base, and that’s what you should do.
Neil Low
For me the best thing about being a writer is the actual writing itself. I started writing while I was the commander of Internal Investigations for the Seattle Police Department. I wrote formal findings all day, sometimes the equivalent of three term papers a day, along with a handful of closing letters. This would be called right-brained logic writing. At night, I found stress release in writing fiction, which would be left-brained creativity. It also allowed me to work in some names (which I later had to change) of the people who might have been giving me grief in my work world. I look back now and am totally surprised how quickly that first novel jumped off the keyboard for me. It was a totally fantastic release for me.
Later, after my novel was published, and I was being interviewed by a reporter, she asked: "When you wrote about the murder of Alan Stewart's father, was that your way of dealing with the loss of your own father when you were young?" The reporter had caught me completely off guard, but she was absolutely right. That is really what I was doing, dealing with inner angst, feeling that he was taken to early from me. So I was projecting myself into one of the characters, one I no doubt wished I had been more like in my youth.
Another favorite thing about being a writer is receiving fan mail, making Facebook friends and Twitter friends of people who feel they know me through my writing. One of my favorite new friends got so much into my characters that he suggest a prequel to my first story. He'd like to know what Alan's father and associates had been up to in the years before the murder. He even suggested a plot line that's quite good. The biggest thrill here is that he enjoyed the characters I created so much that they seemed real to him, and he wants to see more of them. It could happen... Meanwhile, I'm writing my seventh novel in the series...
Later, after my novel was published, and I was being interviewed by a reporter, she asked: "When you wrote about the murder of Alan Stewart's father, was that your way of dealing with the loss of your own father when you were young?" The reporter had caught me completely off guard, but she was absolutely right. That is really what I was doing, dealing with inner angst, feeling that he was taken to early from me. So I was projecting myself into one of the characters, one I no doubt wished I had been more like in my youth.
Another favorite thing about being a writer is receiving fan mail, making Facebook friends and Twitter friends of people who feel they know me through my writing. One of my favorite new friends got so much into my characters that he suggest a prequel to my first story. He'd like to know what Alan's father and associates had been up to in the years before the murder. He even suggested a plot line that's quite good. The biggest thrill here is that he enjoyed the characters I created so much that they seemed real to him, and he wants to see more of them. It could happen... Meanwhile, I'm writing my seventh novel in the series...
Neil Low
Given the length and depth of my career in police work, I have lots of material to draw from for my crime stories. And since I prefer to write crime fiction, I'm in my element almost all of the time. Occasionally, though, I do get stuck with how I want to frame a scene, moving characters in and out and such. In those instances, I usually let the scene percolate for a little bit, maybe a day or two, but I try not to let it go to long. For instance, my W.I.P. involves a complicated mass murder. I led my detectives to the door where the crime occurred and then stopped, trying to imagine how I would have investigated it during my earlier years. I even took the ferry over to where the actual murders happened and tried to absorb as much from the neighborhood as I possibly could. So, by then I had a pretty good feel for the scene, but then I also called one of my friends who worked for me as a Homicide detective. He's one of the best and is still there. He's also very proud of his skill level and doesn't mind sharing a bit. So I posed these questions to him: "How would you break this scene up into manageable pieces? Where would you start first? Your next step? Then what?" Once I was sure we were on the same page I opened the door and let my detectives into the grizzly scene. I treated it just like I would a work assignment, and I didn't stop writing until my detectives got to a natural resting point. The key to this answer is that I treated my sticking point just like I would my work. I found a sounding board to make sure I was making the right moves, and then I plowed ahead. That works very well for me.
Another trick I have is that I write organically; meaning that I don't like to have a detailed plot. Instead, I like my characters to tell me what they're working on and what they need to do next. I do, however, write chapter summaries at the end of my document so that I can quickly review at a glance what I've already written, what the key points were and what might need to be done yet. Every few chapters I go back and read through these bullet points to see where I've come from and in what direction I'm headed. This also provides the benefit of allowing me to see if I missed a logical plot point that the detectives need to pursue to make the case real.
Another favorite technique I use when I'm really stymied is mediation, which I've had formal training in using. I often write in what might be considered a near alpha state, but if inspiration is not coming on its own, I can check my breathing, close my eyes, and walk myself through the meditation. When my blood pressure lowers and I get near where I want to be, then I allow myself to focus on the characters and plot--just like I'm watching a movie on the big screen. I give the characters permission to come out and play, and then when my twenty minutes are up, I jot some quick notes.
A word of caution about the alpha state: It also comes when you're sleeping or near sleeping. Your characters might come out on their own and start to play. Don't squander this opportunity. I keep a notepad by the bed, because it's almost impossible to remember all of the "good stuff" the following morning. I've also woken up at three in the morning with three or four of the next chapters clearly laid out for me. Thank goodness I was smart enough to jump out of bed, boot up the computer, and write it all out while it was fresh. Turned out to be some of my best prose.
Another trick I have is that I write organically; meaning that I don't like to have a detailed plot. Instead, I like my characters to tell me what they're working on and what they need to do next. I do, however, write chapter summaries at the end of my document so that I can quickly review at a glance what I've already written, what the key points were and what might need to be done yet. Every few chapters I go back and read through these bullet points to see where I've come from and in what direction I'm headed. This also provides the benefit of allowing me to see if I missed a logical plot point that the detectives need to pursue to make the case real.
Another favorite technique I use when I'm really stymied is mediation, which I've had formal training in using. I often write in what might be considered a near alpha state, but if inspiration is not coming on its own, I can check my breathing, close my eyes, and walk myself through the meditation. When my blood pressure lowers and I get near where I want to be, then I allow myself to focus on the characters and plot--just like I'm watching a movie on the big screen. I give the characters permission to come out and play, and then when my twenty minutes are up, I jot some quick notes.
A word of caution about the alpha state: It also comes when you're sleeping or near sleeping. Your characters might come out on their own and start to play. Don't squander this opportunity. I keep a notepad by the bed, because it's almost impossible to remember all of the "good stuff" the following morning. I've also woken up at three in the morning with three or four of the next chapters clearly laid out for me. Thank goodness I was smart enough to jump out of bed, boot up the computer, and write it all out while it was fresh. Turned out to be some of my best prose.
Neil Low
My current W.I.P. is another noir detective novel, based on a real life mass murder that occurred in the Bremerton area during the Depression, right at the end of Prohibition. Bremerton didn't have the resources or skill set to investigate it, so they called on the services of the famous Luke May, a real-life Sherlock Holmes, who had been hired by Seattle Police to create its crime lab. While May was on the ferry over to Bremerton, a deputy who was supposed to protect the crime scene charged as many as 170 locals a quarter a piece to walk through the crime scene. Somebody stole the hosiery off one of the dead victims. Luke May still did a fine job on the investigation and inspired this story...
Neil Low
My stories are both character driven and plot driven, and that combination keeps me inspired to write. I like to start out with an old, true police case I've found while researching old homicide cases or other police records. Many of my stories come from there, particularly if I read one where the police did a very fine job of investigative work. Then I infuse my characters, private investigators Alan Stewart and Vera Deward, who are often assisted by police detective, Ben Kearney. Once I get my characters briefed on what I want them to do, they often take off on their own and leave me to catch up and take notes on what they've been up to. Of course I was a detective myself and I continue to work in police work, having commanded almost every section on the department. So I know police procedures and have a boiler plate in my brain of how an investigation should go down. I've done hundreds of interviews, and I know how they work and what tactics to employ. My problem is finding the time to write...
Neil Low
The idea for THEATER OF THE CRIME came to me while walking through the Pike Place Market (Seattle) with my publisher, Kristen Morris, when we walked past the Magic Shop. We both turned at the same time, our eyes drawn to a poster of "Alexander: The Man Who Knows" dressed like Johnny Carson's Carnac the Magnificent. We looked at each other and said, "That's the next story line!"
Carson did a spoof of Alexander, wearing the large turban and supposedly predicting in advance what someone in the audience had asked him on a note inside a sealed envelope. I remembered watching a black and white movie, probably from the 30s or 40s that featured a demonic wizard who could read people's minds. It scared me more than I care to admit. The real life Alexander traveled the West Coast and became quite wealthy with his stage show, but he was a con man who learned his trade as a grifter working the saloons in Alaska during the GoldRush. So for me he represented a research challenge, because I wanted to figure out how his magic act actually worked. It took over a year to learn his trick and other magic acts, appropriate to the era. This wasn't as easy as it seemed, because magicians take a secrecy oath and are not supposed to reveal theirs or other magicians' tricks. It looked for awhile like I was going to have to become a magician to learn how the trick work--but if I did take that step, then I would also have to obey the magician's oath and not tell my readers what I'd been taught! What was the point in that? The research paid off and THEATER OF THE CRIME was the number one bestseller in trade paperbacks at the Seattle Mystery Bookshop, following the launch, and it's continuing to do well there.
Carson did a spoof of Alexander, wearing the large turban and supposedly predicting in advance what someone in the audience had asked him on a note inside a sealed envelope. I remembered watching a black and white movie, probably from the 30s or 40s that featured a demonic wizard who could read people's minds. It scared me more than I care to admit. The real life Alexander traveled the West Coast and became quite wealthy with his stage show, but he was a con man who learned his trade as a grifter working the saloons in Alaska during the GoldRush. So for me he represented a research challenge, because I wanted to figure out how his magic act actually worked. It took over a year to learn his trick and other magic acts, appropriate to the era. This wasn't as easy as it seemed, because magicians take a secrecy oath and are not supposed to reveal theirs or other magicians' tricks. It looked for awhile like I was going to have to become a magician to learn how the trick work--but if I did take that step, then I would also have to obey the magician's oath and not tell my readers what I'd been taught! What was the point in that? The research paid off and THEATER OF THE CRIME was the number one bestseller in trade paperbacks at the Seattle Mystery Bookshop, following the launch, and it's continuing to do well there.
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