See below. Great to have all of you here.
On The Home Front
Not too much to see here. It is going to be somewhere flirting with the nineties in most of Iowa over this coming weekend and it is a travesty to have such high temperatures during the last weekend of September/first weekend of October. It reminds me too much of my wedding nearly 26 years ago when Laura and I wanted to get married on a pleasant October fall day and wound up sweating to death in a heavy tuxedo and wedding dress in 80-plus degree weather.
This is why Iceland sounds like a good idea right now.
What I’ve Been Writing
I’ve continued to work on The Yank Striker 2 this week. I took a brief break from the section I discussed last week and decided to add another scene intended to further develop the main character of the series, DJ Ryan.
I recently reviewed a book entitled The Barcelona Complex here on The Writing Life. I was hoping for at least a very good read about the history of FC Barcelona and the great players and coaches which populated that history, and I got what I was looking for. However, I had also hoped the book would be a resource of practical information on life inside a professional soccer club and prove useful in the writing of The Yank Striker 2. As it happened, there was one tidbit in the book that ended up being very useful indeed.
I continue to be embarrassed over the years regarding my ignorance of the game at times. I remember when I had a FIFA game for my PC back around 2000, choosing Manchester United as my team, and then having no idea what UEFA was or why I would be playing UEFA games that were different from the Premier League games. I was definitely a Yank back then.
I even remember this feeling when, in past years, I ended up coaching youth soccer, first for my own kids when they played YMCA soccer, and then just a couple of years ago when I did a favor for my wife and coached for our local youth city league. I knew a few things about proper technique and coaching, but there was so much I didn’t know about the game. For example, if I had done a little more digging, I would have found out about rondo exercises, like I did in The Barcelona Complex.
The rondois essentially a game where a group of players gathers around in a circle, or some other shape, and attempt to pass the ball to each other while a smaller group of people in the middle attempt to stop them. In the game, players have to work together, make rapid decisions, think creatively, and have a good touch in making passes both on diagonals and with balls through the opposition, as well as the conditioning benefits. Basically, it allows you to develop every sort of skill you would need on a soccer field except for shooting. I know if I had known more about the exercise, I would have my players doing that even more than scrimmaging.
In learning more about the rondo and the culture behind it, it called to mind a piece of advice I’d received much earlier in the development of The Yank Striker series from a friend and fellow writer from Muscatine named Misty Urban. (You should absolutely check out her site.) She reminded me it was not going to be too interesting from a character development standpoint for a lead character to be able to be good at everything they did and not have struggles. I thought my character DJ did go through some struggles – I mean, he didn’t even win all of his games in the first book – but I thought it was a very valid concern and something I needed to keep in mind since I wished to make it a series.
A few days ago, I saw a conversation with Clint Dempsey, a former forward player for Tottenham, Fulham, the Seattle Sounders, New England Revolution, and a couple others. The co-leading scorer for the US Men’s National Team, he is now an analyst at CBS Sports. He was talking about coming from Nagadoches, Texas, and not having the opportunity to benefit from great youth coaching like his broadcast colleague, the great French striker Theirry Henry. Dempsey, who all the USMNT fans knew as Deuce, said he was at peace with the success he’d had as a player, but that he’d always wondered what progress he might have made in his career if he’d had high quality coaching in his youth.
I realized DJ was in a similar situation as Deuce was at the start of his career, even though the former had more obvious physical gifts than the latter. So, I wanted to have a situation where even a great natural goal-scorer like DJ would not only be challenged by but actually struggle with. What better struggle to face than an activity where goal-scoring isn’t the point of the activity? It was then I realized I had a perfect symbol of how far he had to go before mastering his craft. Now all I have to do is manage not to butcher the scene when I write it. 😁
What I’ve Been Doing Having to Do With Writing
I should be looking over my recommendations on Substack and starting to add more to them. But to be honest, I’ve been concentrating on getting my writing quota and more done rather than the accessory stuff. Maybe I’ll get to it this weekend? Maybe during my time at this book fair this Sunday (read further down to hear more)1.
Writing Advice for the Week
This week I’ll be tackling the second of George Orwell’s six rules of writing. Like I said last week, Orwell has long been one of my literary and writing heroes growing up, not just for his novels, but also for his essays on language and writing itself. Along with Stephen King’s On Writing, his essays on writing were a great instructional resource as I reeducated myself in later years.
So, number two on the list is:
Never use a long word when a short word will do.
We want to have a variety of words available to us as writers to properly express our message to readers, what we want to describe and let our audience be aware of. Having a variety of tools is a very good thing. My son, the heating and air conditioning technician and maintenance man, would say the more tools you have available for your use, the better.
Whether you use all those tools on a regular basis, however, is another matter entirely. That is what Orwell is warning us about with this second rule. In the words of Ann Wright’s analysis of this rule:
Here are some examples: use “start” not “commence”, use “buy” not “purchase”, use “save” not “conserve”, use “used to” not “accustomed to”, and use “walking” not “proceeding along the carriageway”.
This is not an exhortation to use boring or repetitive language – just to avoid the impression in your writing that you have swallowed a dictionary!
In everything else, as Orwell would say, moderation is the key. It’s all right to display a rhetorical flourish every once and a while, but don’t rely on it to carry your story.
What I’ve Been Reading/General Recommendations
I already hyped this up on Notes a little while back, but this piece by Sarah Fay got me thinking about how I could improve what I’m doing online and with my writing. I’m sort of tempted to book a Zoom meeting with her myself and see what I can be doing better. If you’re writing out on the Internets, maybe you should, too.
Where I’ll Be and Where You Can Find my Books
You are probably a bit weary of me promoting my appearances, but I did want to get the word out. Today will actually be the last day I can get the word out for the first one, and when I put out my next weekend newsletter, I’ll most likely be on site at the second stop, so it won’t be as bad next week, I promise disregard this, I can’t count 😂.
So, here we go:
- [THIS IS TOMORROW]
From 12-6 p.m. Sunday, Oct 1, I’ll be at the Windsor Heights Book Fair, 1141 69th St., Windsor Heights. I’m really looking forward to seeing the other authors there and having a great event. - From 10 a.m. to 4 p.m. Saturday, Oct. 14, at MERGE, 136 Dubuque St., Iowa City, as part of the Iowa City Book Festival that week.This is just a small part of a week-long festival throughout Iowa City from Oct. 8-15. I’ve always been proud of my former school, the University of Iowa, cultivating a worldwide reputation as a supporter of literature, and the community of Iowa City also plays its part. Go ahead and click on the link in this paragraph to check out the festival.
- And from 10 a.m. to 5 p.m. Saturday, Nov. 4, I will be at the Elwell Building at the Iowa State Fairgrounds as part of the 8th Annual Indie Author Book Expo. It will be the first time I’ve spent any time at the Iowa State Fairgrounds after more than 40 years of living in Iowa.
I’ve got links to my books in paperback and ebook format in the sidebar here, but you can get them in person at these fine Iowa bookstores:
- Beaverdale Books, 2629 Beaver Ave # S1, Des Moines
- Pella Books, 824 Franklin St, Pella
- The Book Vault, 105 S Market St, Oskaloosa.
All three are great independent bookstores who deserve your support.
Writing Quote(s) of the Week
Well, it appears Dr. Seuss also might agree with the writing advice for this week.
It has often been said
Dr. Seuss
there’s so much to be read,
you never can cram
all those words in your head.
So the writer who breeds
more words than he needs
is making a chore
for the reader who reads.
That’s why my belief is
the briefer the brief is,
the greater the sigh
of the reader’s relief is.
And that’s why your books
have such power and strength.
You publish with shorth!
(Shorth is better than length.)
Final Thoughts
I always appreciate hearing from readers, whether its in the comments in these newsletters, in Substack Notes, or by email. Let me know what I’m doing well and what you’d like to hear.
– 30 –
- This is twice in a row I’ve complained about this. Don’t worry, it’s going to be the last time for a while, since you all shouldn’t have to hear me repeat myself all the time. ↩︎
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