Author Shortcuts

JUST WORDS: Author Shortcuts

I’m always uneasy with writer shortcuts. I understand the need for them, especially in this digital age. Still…

Lisbeth Salendar, for all her good qualities, was not adequate for the digital age, so she had a friend who knew all about computers and could produce any knowledge she needed out of the air. [1] Most heroes in the digital age, even Lee Childs’ lone cowboy Jack Reacher, have such a friend. Just how they became friends is never quite explained, nor why the friend is willing to go to such lengths to satisfy the hero’s every internet need. The digital age, and total surveillance, are a reality. Even a hero cannot escape the robot spies with the camera eyes. They are ubiquitous. So a writer has to explain how the hero negotiates that labyrinth. A friend who knows how to do it without him/herself being detected, perhaps even is ahead of the government and big business and the spy masters, is a nice shortcut. Still, it seems a bit of authorly dishonesty.

The same is true of the robot killers with the dead eyes. If any explanation of why they are like that is given, it is usually perfunctory. He was mistreated in an orphanage, or he was just born that way. It shortens the story, and allows the writer to concentrate on the hero character and his friends, but evil is not that simple, either in origin or function.

On the other hand, a good mystery/action story is not a theological exploration of the origin of evil, nor is it a computer manual, so I guess I need to learn to live with the shortcuts. I think it is a bit more honest, though, to do it by not putting the hero into a situation where she needs the shortcuts.

John Robert McFarland

1] Steig Larrson, THE GIRL WITH THE DRAGON TATTOO

My novel, VETS, will be published by Black Opal Books in late 2014 or early 2015.

In case you missed it, a Tweet Repeat: “This is not a novel to be tossed aside lightly. It should be thrown with great force.” Dorothy Parker

I tweet as yooper1721.

                    

I also write Christ in Winter: Reflections on Faith from a Place of Winter for the Years of Winter. http://christinwinter.blogspot.com/

MY OTHER BOOKS:

NOW THAT I HAVE CANCER I AM WHOLE: Reflections on Life and Healing for Cancer Patients and Those Who Love Them [AndrewsMcMeel & HarperAudio, with Czech and Japanese translations] Paul K. Hamilton, MD, the co-founder of CanSurmount, called it “The best book for cancer patients, by a cancer patient, ever.”

AN ORDINARY MAN [HarperPaperbacks] Randall MacLane just wanted to be an ordinary man. But sent with a message for Custer, he became a drifting lawman with a knack for killing, and a deep well of loneliness. Then a twist of fate brought him full circle…

THE STRANGE CALLING: Stories of Ministry [Smyth&Helwys] I didn’t want to be a preacher, but I made a deal with God to save my sister’s life. Was that really a “call,” though? I said, “I’ll try t for 50 years, and if I still don’t know, I’ll do something else.” These are stories of what happened in those years of questioning the call.

WHEN FATHER RODE THE MAIL and Other Stories of Christmas [lulu.com] ISBN 978-1-300-38566-0

If you like baseball poetry, take a look at “Frosty & the Babe” http://www.baseball-almanac.com/poetry/frosty_and_the_babe.shtml