Author: Scott William Carter

I’ve been a tennis fan for years, and the other day I came across a quote that reminded me how all major pursuits — whether they be writing, sport, or something else entirely — take similar levels of focus and determination to be successful. Andre Agassi, a great tennis champion for the past twenty years, and a man who underwent an amazing transformation from a wild and undisciplined youth that was all about image to a consummate professional whose dedication to training, fitness, and improvement was unrivaled, recently announced he is retiring. He had this to say to younger players:

“Find a way to get more out of yourself, find a way to improve,” Agassi said. “And keep pushing your standard and hope that separates you from the rest. It’s a competitive environment out there. It’s an international sport with a lot of great players who pour a lot of themselves into what they do, and my advice to each of them always has pretty much been to just to keep your head down and only think about getting better regardless of where you’re ranked, regardless of what you’re going through.”

If you tweak this quote just a bit, it could have just as easily been said by an old writing pro to up-and-coming writers. I get a lot of inspiration from people like Andre Agassi — people who came to a critical juncture in their lives when they decided they weren’t going to float by on talent alone any longer, that they were going to give their profession everything they had so they wouldn’t have to live with regret. Athletes have a much narrower window of opportunity (thirty-five, Agassi’s age, is ancient for a tennis player), which is the one major advantage that writers have. They can be just hitting their stride at thirty-five. Heck, they can just be hitting their stride at seventy-five . . .

Writing Round-Up:

As far as current projects go, I’m about twenty thousand words in on a new book that I’m excited about, a novel of dark suspense with a few elements of the fantastic. Think Dean Koontz and Stephen King — or at least, that’s the general feel I’m going for. In fact, the main character is similar to the one in my short story, “The Grand Mal Reaper,” which appeared in the August 2006 issue of Realms of Fantasy. I seem to really be drawn to characters who have some kind of extraordinary ability that can be both a gift and a curse. Other recent appearances:

• “The Tiger in the Garden” appeared in the June 2006 issue of Asimov’s
• A rather unusual “story” with me as the main character, “Epic, The,” appeared in the Twenty Epics anthology in July.
• “Heart of Stone” appeared in the anthology Hags, Sirens, and Other Bad Girls of Fantasy

Recommended Reads:

I haven’t done this in a while, so there’s a few more than usual . . .

• The Autobiography of Malcolm X by Malcolm X and Alex Haley – I’d always been meaning to read Malcolm X’s autobiography, and he was a much more complicated man than my most people believe, especially toward the end of his life. It’s sad that his transformation from an extremist National of Islam leader to a more nuanced, thoughtful thinker on racial issues was cut short.
• Lightning by Dean Koontz – A great suspenseful time travel story that takes some unusual twists. Definitely one of Koontz’s best.
• Flights of Passage by Samuel Hayes – Haye’s memoir of being a World War II aviator was a great coming-of-age story.
• Like Lambs to Slaughter by Lawrence Block – A short story anthology of one crime fiction’s premier writers.
• Not So Picture Perfect by Jan Eliot – A wonderful cartoonist who actually lives not far away from me in Eugene, Oregon.
• Crusader’s Cross by James Lee Burke – He really lives up to his reputation as the Faulkner of crime fiction in this one.

One of the great things about the annual Hugo Awards is that many of the science fiction magazines place the nominated stories free on their websites. If you have a few spare moments, take a look at “Inside Job,” by Connie Wills, and “Down Memory Lane,” by Mike Resnick, both available on Asimov’s website. Even if you’re not a fan of science fiction, you’ll probably enjoy these stories. I read a lot of short fiction across all genres, and I find a lot I like, but it’s rare that I read one that not only blows me away but also makes me want to be a better writer. Both of these stories did that for me. Resnick always impresses me with his economy; he does so much with so few words. And when Willis is at the top of her form, she’s one of the best writers alive–science fiction or otherwise.I also recently read Eragon and Eldest by Christopher Paolini. The novels tell the story of a boy and his dragon, as well as the usual fantasy fare of good versus evil and all that jazz. Hard to believe he was still a teenager when the first book was published. Definitely worth reading. Given a choice between great writing and a great storytelling, I’ll take the great story every time. I think most readers agree. Of course, I’d like to have both, but it’s not the nice turn of phrase that sticks with me, it’s the story. Think about it. When you breathlessly tell your friends about some novel you just adored, what do they ask? Isn’t it, “What’s it about?” How many people ask about the writing? In fact, I’d go so far as to say that usually– not always, but usually– great writing and great storytelling go hand in hand. Great writing is usually invisible, because it’s completely subservient to the story. If you notice the writing, it’s almost always a bad thing–at least in modern fiction. (We’ll leave Shakespeare out of this.) Take the Willis story. I came away thinking it was brilliantly written, but if you take any page out of context, nothing remarkable really jumps out at you. But as a whole, every word choice she made, from the dialog to the setting, was spot on for the story she was telling.

And of course, great writing always seems as if it’s remarkably easy to do, though it seldom is.

I was having an online discussion with an aspiring fiction writer the other day that made me realize why writing has been a little harder for me lately. Quite simply, I’ve been running out of fuel.

Books, stories, poetry — the creative “fuel” for any writing can come from a number of different places, including experiences gained from our own lives. But a writer’s most consistent source of sustenance for his imagination has to be other writers. “If you don’t have the time to read, you don’t have the time or the tools to write.” That’s what Stephen King, whom I believe to be the Charles Dickens of our time, wrote in his great book on writing, aptly named just that, On Writing. And nothing could be more true. If your own experiences are the spark, the flame, that gives your stories heart, then reading is the wood that feeds the flames.

In the course of this conversation with this aspiring writer, I asked him what kind of books he was reading. He sheepishly admitted that he didn’t have much time to read, so he didn’t do a whole lot of it. (He, of course, didn’t do much writing either, which frankly wasn’t a surprise, because most aspiring writers don’t — which is why they’re “aspiring.” When they start writing a lot, they cease to be aspiring writers in my mind and become up-and-coming writers.) But without reading, there’s no hope for any writer, because it’s by reading that he or she keeps the fires burning. All those words and ideas of other writers get ground up in the writer’s mind, becoming grist for the mill, or quite literally food for thought.

I’ve been having a hard time finding my groove with my writing lately, and I think my problem is the same as with this aspiring writer. Not enough reading. For a while, I wasn’t doing a whole lot of writing either (partly due to the birth of my son, and partly due to other matters), but now that I have been writing, it’s seemed a little . . . stale. Forced sometimes. I couldn’t put my finger on why until I realized that I hadn’t been feeding my imagination well enough.

As time became more scarce (and I thought I was busy with one child), I sometimes felt I had to choose between reading and writing, as if there wasn’t enough time to do both. It’s not like I stopped reading completely (I love it too much for that), but I haven’t been reading with the same quantity or diversity. That’s got to the change — both have to be made priorities. Because King’s right: if I don’t make the time to read, I won’t have what it takes to write. And if I don’t read widely and voraciously, I certainly can’t get better — because it’s by comparing myself to other writers that I push myself to get better as a writer myself.

Now if you’ll excuse me, there’s this book I’ve been meaning to read, and I better get to it.