Tag: writing technique

The Tragic Magic of Guns

My wife and I decided to consume some novelistic comfort food through the hot summer. We have enjoyed some mainstream/literary stories (James, Westward with Giraffes, Mink River) and are now settled into British mystery series—Elly Griffiths’ Ruth Galloway mysteries, Sarah Yarwood-Lovett’s Dr. Nell Ward series. Which led me, at least, to pondering guns: not the philosophy, not the politics, but the impact of easily available firearms on storytelling.

Most of the mystery writers I admire agree that character is most important element of a story. PD James says, “What the detective story is about is not murder but the restoration of order.” That requires strong, deeply human, believable characters — not just clever plots. Raymond Chandler said, “The character of the detective must be in some way the moral center of the story.” 

But plot-centric thrillers like Lee Child’s Reacher books are enormously popular. Reacher has little backstory and needs none. There’s virtually no character arc—he arrives on the bus, rights wrongs, faces nuance-free antagonists and kills a lot of bad guys, has sex with a pretty woman, leaves on a bus to his next adventure. When it comes down to it, I suspect one’s writing comes down to internal wiring—what you’re good at is part of you. My thrillers lean toward character development and have become more so in the now nearly fifteen years since I started writing seriously. I love the techie parts, but I’m always more interested in what makes the people in the stories tick.

I can see space for both approaches. I think of the character-driven stories as thick and the plot-driven hotrods as thin. The character driven model draws the reader into the depth of the story through the characters. You can’t get to the core of the story without knowing the characters, and building that knowledge takes words and permission from the reader to move a little more slowly. The plot driven stories tend to move fast, and part of the excitement of reading them is the breakneck pace.

They always say to write, you must read, and that is certainly true, but I’m finding that reading other writers firms up what I am. There are plenty of authors that I would love to be as good as, but the last few years have taught me that I don’t want to emulate them, I just want to understand why they’re good.

It’s good to be a work in progress..

Chuckle of the day.

I’m writing a passage describing an angry man:  

“Shocked that he had not been part of the meeting with Connie and me, Jack went to Maren and threatened to quit. Maren thanked him for his service and accepted his resignation. Apparently not understanding that she’s the boss pro tem, he said he wasn’t gonna take no layoff from some ditzy broad and appealed to me. To be fair, I laughed more out of surprise then derision.”

I reread the passage. Hmmm. Broad? I remind myself that (a) I’m writing in near-current time, and (b) I’m an old guy. I am painfully familiar with the old guy word usage caution (OGWUC). It’s similar to the Indy 500 yellow flag, except it is the raised eyebrow of a younger critique group member. So I fire up ChatGPT and ask: 

Is “broad” widely used as a pejorative term for a woman anymore?

Chat GPT replies: 

” ‘Broad’ as a pejorative term for a woman has largely fallen out of common usage in contemporary times. It was more prevalent in earlier decades, particularly in the mid-20th century and was often used in a derogatory or disrespectful manner to refer to women. However, as societal attitudes have evolved and awareness of gender-based language has increased, terms like ‘broad’ are now generally considered outdated and offensive.”

Just make sure I understand—has ChatGPT already developed an old guy algorithm?—it scolds me:

“Language reflects the norms and values of a society, and there has been a growing recognition of the importance of using respectful and inclusive language, especially when referring to gender. As a result, derogatory terms like ‘broad’ have largely been replaced by more respectful and neutral language in modern discourse.”

Okay, but I still need a good pejorative for use by an angry guy. So, Chat, buddy, What are common pejoratives for women today?

“While the use of overtly pejorative terms for women has decreased over time due to societal shifts towards greater awareness and sensitivity, unfortunately, some derogatory terms still persist in various contexts. However, it’s important to note that using such language is disrespectful and reinforces harmful stereotypes. Here are a few examples:

Bitch: This term is used to insult or belittle women by suggesting they are aggressive, unpleasant, or difficult.”

Chat GPT gives me several other banal options, but “Bitch” at number one was, to me, priceless. ‘Broad’ to ‘Bitch’ in a time of “the importance of using respectful and inclusive language, especially when referring to gender.” One assumes AI hasn’t learned irony—yet.