How to Write a Book Series

Attitude Matters in Writing

Let's say you want to know how to write a book. One of the more fun activities is to pretend you have a particular type of Attitude that you might not really claim in real life. On the advanced level, this technique of delivery becomes Dramatic Irony in first-person point-of-view fiction. Concentrate on this advanced level for a moment.

If you decide to write in an Attitude that is truly alien to any part of your character, like you are a mass cat-murderer looking for the next cat to befriend and attack (Edgar Allen Poe's "The Black Cat"), be aware that the lines between fiction and nonfiction may blur. You may end up with fiction, if actions occur in your writing that never happen (or happened) in your real, day-to-day life.

In that case, the novelist or short-story writer will create a character that tells the story. It is usually a tragically flawed character. The writer is able to create a gap between the writer and the created teller of the tale. The reader is in on the trick, but the storyteller of the tale is not aware than anybody knows anything but him. Example: The Emperor's New Clothes.

If you slip into fiction in developing a particular Attitude, then you are free from restrictions that apply to serious nonfiction. But if you are purposefully writing nonfiction, you should be especially sensitive to the development of Attitude, because it can make or break your reading (listening) audience.

Woe be to the nonfiction writer who begins to slip and inserts a few activities that never really happened in the book of his life story and/or drug addiction. That's lying, and it cannot be published as nonfiction and be trusted. (Besides, it makes Oprah real unhappy!) You can alter your Attitude without telling lies. Political journalists do it every day.

Sometimes a switcheroo in Attitude can loose an audience. What if Imus, the ultra-conservative tv quasi-journalist, was to suddenly begin singing the praises of Hilary Clinton and speaking as if he was in support of massive Health and Welfare and Education funding? What would his poor, devoted NRA audience think? They would wonder if he was suffering a little momentary brain damage.

What if you are writing a speech for the American Psychiatric Association for their annual conference, and you have recently discovered that Peyote is a fabulous treatment for Paranoid Schizophrenic Hallucinations? Just exactly how you present this ground- breaking news on Peyote buttons is going to determine how quickly the ground may open up underneath you on the podium. Your Attitude is the Geiger counter that controls the audience's earthquake potential, so you shouldn't be surprised when rotten tomatoes fly.

With Attitude, you can guarantee that the rotten tomatoes will fly in your direction. With Attitude, you can put a curve on the tomatoes to insure that they land on the target of your choice.