The Good Fight

When I started this blog a few weeks ago, my goal was to blog Monday through Friday. Life intervened the last couple of days but I'm back at it today.

I found a great article in the Boston Globe Ideas Section titled The Good Fight. It's about one of my favorite topics - conflict. Whether you love the chance to get into someone's grill or you'd rather cut and run when things get hot, conflict is the inevitable byproduct of the human condition.

Whether it's Isaiah quoting God's instruction that we reason together or Rodney King's plea that we all just get along, we spend a lot of time trying to figure out what to do about the conflicts in our daily lives.

This article discusses new research on conflict that challenges the conventional wisdom that conflict is a bad thing. Here's some of the good stuff in the article.

"As the study of conflict gains traction, researchers are examining which conflict dynamics might enhance our daily lives and how the right kinds of conflict may have merit on their own. At home, it appears, a resilient fighter can help a partner overcome a difficult childhood; at work, research is showing that more tolerance for anger can make for a more productive team.

This isn’t to say that all fighting is good. Hostility run amok, with name-calling and screaming, is counterproductive. Violence is worse yet. But this emerging research offers the heartening suggestion that conflict with other people — which is, after all, an inevitable part of social life — doesn’t have to mean a breakdown in relations. When done right, in fact, it can often mean just the opposite."

So, conflict done right can be a good thing. Knowing how to constructively engage in conflict is a discussion for another day.

As usual, I look for the link to my writing. Conflict is essential to a story. Throwing characters into the middle of a conflict will keep things moving. Whether they fight well or poorly can seal their fate - and ours.

Did You Hear What I Meant?

Nothing drives a story like conflict. No reader will be interested in a plot where everything goes according to plan. Nor will they care about characters who get along all the time and whose greatest fear is facial muscle cramps from their perpetual smiles.

Conflict is easy to start. Mix people with different backgrounds, goals, values and ambitions. Add doses of love, lust, jealousy, anger and greed, then stir. The next thing you know, your characters are dropping like flies when they're not jumping from bed to bed.

But nothing drives conflict better than the gap between what one person hears and the other person means. What we hear and how we interpret it is influenced by all those differences and emotions. We look for words and meanings that fit with our own narrative, accepting what we like, rejecting the rest. That is the stuff of conflict and great stories.

Unlike fiction, where bad guys can be held to account and all wrongs can be righted by the last page, the real world is a lot messier. But the same rules about conflict apply. President Obama's speech on the Middle East is just the latest example. Everyone who has commented on the speech heard the same words but the words meant different things, depending on the listener. Jeffrey Goldberg, one of the best writers and thinkers on the subject, blogs about this for The Atlantic, posting and commenting on the wildly different responses to the speech.

All of which leads me to one of the most important rules of conflict. Not all conflicts can be resolved. Sometimes the best you can hope for is to manage the conflict in a way that minimizes the harm it causes. Unless you're a writer. In which case, you can do any damn thing you want. One more reason I love my job.

What Will You Pay For An Ebook?

Sales of ebooks continue to rise at a meteoric pace, topping all formats, including hardcover and paperback, for the month of February. The question for traditional publishers and self-publishers is how much to charge and the answer is, as is so often the case, that depends on a lot of things.

Check out Amazon's Top 100 Bestsellers in Kindle Ebooks and you will find prices ranging from 99 cents to $12.99. Most of the books in the top 50 sell for prices above $5 and many sell for close to $10. Most are written by established, big name writers whose books are published by traditional publishers. As you go deeper into the list, there are more books priced at 99 cents.

Amazon has bestseller lists for every genre. The prices of the top 20 books on the Mystery & Thrillers list are also at high end of the spectrum. But the 99 cent books start popping up in the top 21-40 listed books. While I haven't made a detailed survey, it looks this trend holds in the other genre lists. The narrower the genre, the more likely it is that a book priced at $2.99 or less will make it onto the bestseller list.

So what are my takeaways? Much of the growth in ebook sales is driven by sales of traditionally published books. Self-published authors can leverage low prices to overcome lack of name recognition. Readers are more likely to take a chance on an author they aren't familiar with if the price is lower. Makes sense.

Until you read this story. Diane Duane's book wasn't gaining a lot of traction at $1.99 so she raised the price to $4.99 and it took off.

What's that mean? What does a 99 cent price say about the value of a book? Should a self-publisher use the low price to introduce a book and then raise the price? Or, should a self-publisher charge a higher price to attract buyers who will think a book priced between $3 and $5 is a better value because of the higher price?

Let me know what you think. I'm still trying to decide how to price my ebooks, beginning with MOTION TO KILL, which I'm launching in June.

What The Hell We're They Thinking?

I'm not a psychologist and I don't play one on TV. But as a writer, I'm endlessly interested in why we do the things we do because that's the stuff of character.

A great plot is essential to a story because it moves the story forward, adding suspense, mystery and intrigue. While a good plot will keep a reader interested, it won't make the reader CARE as much as great characters will.

Readers will invest in those characters whether they sympathize and identify with them or whether they fear and loathe them. Either way, the reader cares what happens and wants to understand why the characters are the way they are.

All of which is preface to trying to make sense of the Arnold Schwarzenegger story. My take is based on a terrific book, Mistakes Were Made But Not By Me, written by two real psychologists. They focus on cognitive dissonance, the uncomfortable feeling of simultaneously holding conflicting ideas or beliefs.

In a case like this, Arnold may have simultaneously believed that he loved his wife and that he wanted to have sex with this other woman. To resolve his cognitive dissonance, he may have utilized self justification to rationalize his behavior, e.g., "I'm entitled because of who I am," "My wife doesn't understand me," etc.

Of course, there is another possible explanation. The guy is a total asshole. Some people just are and it's no more complicated than that. But who am I to say for sure? This psychology stuff can get too complicated even for a writer.

Dog Days

These are our dogs, Roxy and Ruby, cockapoo sisters born on Valentine's Day. Roxy is the white one on the right smiling for the camera. Ruby isn't smiling because she doesn't have to. She's the boss.

Last night, Roxy was sleeping peacefully in the dog bed on our den floor. Ruby decided she wanted Roxy out of the bed. She sat next to the bed, staring at Roxy, not making a sound, until her silent "get-your-dog-butt-out-of-the-bed" vibe woke Roxy who, reluctantly but obediently, made way for her sister.

No words, growls or barks were exchanged. No threats or promises were made and no shots were fired. Each knew their place. Not a bad world for the two of them. Although, were it me, I'd rather be Ruby than Roxy.

You'll find them in my series featuring former FBI Special Agent Jack Davis, beginning with SHAKEDOWN and continuing in THE DEAD MAN and NO WAY OUT because a book without a dog is like a day without sunshine.

It's Raining Tadpoles In Japan

One of the most common questions I get about my writing is where do I get my ideas. My usual response is that I steal them because that's a lot easier than coming up with them on my own.

Like a lot of jokes, there's an element of truth in that smart-ass answer. The true part is that I get a lot of my ideas just by paying attention to the world around me, listening and keeping my eyes open. I don't consider that stealing. I consider it part of my job as a writer.

I read an article in yesterday's New York Times about how the Army Corps of Engineers is opening flood gates that will flood the Atchafalaya Basin, the heart of Cajun country, in an effort to avoid even worse flooding elsewhere. The reporter asked one local resident why he lived in a place that was subject to this kind of flooding. Here's what that person said:

"It's where we was raised. Where my daddy was raised. Where we make our living. Why you are here is something you never even think about. You are this place."

That's one of the best pieces of dialogue I've come across in a long time. It's honest, real and heartfelt. And it's one of the best descriptions of how place can become a character in a story.

I tore that out of the newspaper and stuck it in my wallet and now I have to find a way to put those words in the mouth or mind of one of my characters without committing plagiarism. Maybe my character will have read the article and the quote will have stuck with him/her as much as it has stuck with me.

I collect this kind of stuff and some of it is a lot easier to find a way to use than others. I'm still looking for a way to use one of my all time favorite headlines - It's Raining Tadpoles in Japan. Let me know if you've got a good suggestion.

What Does Success Look Like?

So much is happening so fast in writing and publishing that it's easy to lose track of what's important. Case in point. The Kindle Million Club (authors who have sold over a million Kindle books) now has 4 members - Charlaine Harris, Stieg Larson, James Patterson and Nora Roberts. A pretty exclusive group.

Indie writers John Locke (350,000 copies sold Jan. 1-March 8, 2011 at 99 cents each) and Amanda Hocking (sold 450,000 copies of her 9 books in January 2011 alone) should pass the million mark sometime this year. I wonder if Amazon will treat their success with the same acclaim as the others or whether success will be defined differently for them.

How will the rest of us define success if we don't sell a million copies of our books in a million years? Will it be enough to say to ourselves that we've written a good book and the rest is up to the fates? How many positive reviews will it take until we feel validated? How many copies will we have to sell before we have that Sally-Field-You-Like-Me moment? Or, will we declare victory when our royalties exceed our expenses?

I've used all of those yardsticks at one time or another to measure my success and been pleased with the results even though I've yet to clutter the bestseller lists or scout out a place in Scottsdale, AZ for the winter. I did, however, buy a new pair of Skecher Shape-Ups this week.

Numbers are nice and, when they have dollar signs and lots of zeros, they're even nicer. But nothing beats loving what you do and I love to write. That people will pay good money to read what I write is priceless. But if you really want me to have that place in Scottsdale one day, I won't stand in your way when you buy my books!