Page 92 - The Westerner Magazine Halloween 2018
P. 92
Writing Your First advice as gospel. If you have a story you
Western Can be want to tell, or even if you have part of a
story, start writing.
Scary!
I recently released a new book, Slaughter at
Buzzard’s Gulch. It’s the first book in my
new series, Caz: Vigilante Hunter. It’s a
complete departure (except that they’re
both Westerns) from my ongoing series,
Brock Clemons Westerns. And when I
started it, I was just as nervous as when I
wrote the first Brock book (Coyote
Courage). But, I started typing, and the
story and the words unfolded and I’m
excited about the result.
At this point, you might say “Sure, writing
Caz must have been easy after writing eight
Brock Clemons books in a year,” but if you
by Scott Harris did, you’d be wrong. Up until a year ago, I
had never written a Western. I’d never
written a novel. And now, in less than a
The Halloween edition of The Westerner year, Slaughter at Buzzards Gulch is my 13
th
seems like the perfect time to pen a column Western. I absolutely remember how hard it
encouraging you to write your first Western can be to get started. I remember, and in
novel. Why? Because it can be scary! many cases am still dealing with, all of the
questions you might have.
A hot microphone and a room full of
people, and a blank page (OK, screen) in an How much research should I do? How do I
otherwise empty room, are, for many of us, format the book? Where do I get my
two of the scariest things you can be staring character names? First person, third person
it. or a combination? Do I need a publisher or
should I self-publish? Will anyone read it?
My best advice? Start writing.
And the list of questions goes on, and on,
Don’t overthink it. Don’t think there’s only and on, and on….
one way to do it. Don’t find reasons to do
I recently started a weekly blogpost called
something, anything (really, honey, you’re
Tuesday Trail notes and every week (yep,
finally going to clean the rain gutters?)
on Tuesdays), I write a post
other than write. Certainly don’t take my
