Tom Clancy
The late Tom Clancy is one of my favorite writers. I mentioned in a previous post that he got me back into reading and that I'd talk more about him, so here we are.
He is also an inspiration to me as a writer. He is largely responsible for creating his own genre, the techno-thriller. Part of me says, hmmmm, create your own genre, that's one way to corner the market. Another part of me says I'm not that gifted, so I'll just write like that. And if one wants to write a techno-thriller, one must read Tom Clancy.
His first published work was 1994's "The Hunt for Red October." It's the story that introduced the world to Jack Ryan, now the star of a bunch of movies and a television series. Jack is a great hero, a reluctant academician who gets sucked into the CIA and saves the world while retaining his humanity.
A lesser known fact is that is was first published by the Naval Institute Press, not one of the traditional publishers. They only picked it up once it was a massive hit. The lesson for me is that there may be an alternative route to getting published. The fact that the book itself is great certainly didn't hurt anything.
As it turns out, "The Hunt for Red October" would become a blessing and a curse for me.
Let me confess to my own ignorance and lack of foresight. Back in 2016, I knew absolutely nothing about writing a novel. Among the everything I didn't know was how long should a novel be? Being fairly enterprising, I went online and looked up "How many words in The Hunt for Red October?" 163,461 would be the answer. Since it ranks among my favorites and didn't seem crazily long, I looked no further and set 150,000 words as my first goal.
Well, it took two years and I did it. I confess, I teared up when I hit 'save' that day. I did some polishing and some editing and began peddling my work to literary agents. And was rejected repeatedly! A couple were nice enough to tell me that my work was too long, which led me to do some more research.
Ack! Most first novels are in the 70,000 - 80,000 word range. Muttering under my breath, I went back to one of my very first thoughts and decided that it needed to become a trilogy. Conveniently, I pretty much had parts one (American Revolution 2056) and two (American Storm) done.
Conveniently, I even have the very end/last chapter of the saga (American Dawn) since for something like this you have to know how it's going to end if you're going to write it at all.
Then, in 1996, he wrote an epic story of WWIII called "Red Storm Rising." He talked about the challenge of telling a global story on a human level and how he went about breaking it down. Inspiring is what I call that! AR56 is a tale of a national rebellion- how do you make that manageable? Break it down into some bite size pieces. Like I said, inspiration!
A side note for those unfamiliar with his work, he was also a great visionary of the future. In one of his books (1994's "Debt of Honor) has someone fly a 747 into a building (the US Capitol) as a weapon. Sound familiar? Then, in the next book (1996's "Executive Orders") the US faces an Ebola attack, which requires a nationwide quarantine and even legal challenges to it. I'd say he foresaw the future pretty well.
For better or worse, I blame/credit Tom Clancy for the fact that I now have more done than I'd planned...a lot more. And he gives me hope for my own future. Thank you, sir. Rest in peace.
He is also an inspiration to me as a writer. He is largely responsible for creating his own genre, the techno-thriller. Part of me says, hmmmm, create your own genre, that's one way to corner the market. Another part of me says I'm not that gifted, so I'll just write like that. And if one wants to write a techno-thriller, one must read Tom Clancy.
His first published work was 1994's "The Hunt for Red October." It's the story that introduced the world to Jack Ryan, now the star of a bunch of movies and a television series. Jack is a great hero, a reluctant academician who gets sucked into the CIA and saves the world while retaining his humanity.
A lesser known fact is that is was first published by the Naval Institute Press, not one of the traditional publishers. They only picked it up once it was a massive hit. The lesson for me is that there may be an alternative route to getting published. The fact that the book itself is great certainly didn't hurt anything.
As it turns out, "The Hunt for Red October" would become a blessing and a curse for me.
Let me confess to my own ignorance and lack of foresight. Back in 2016, I knew absolutely nothing about writing a novel. Among the everything I didn't know was how long should a novel be? Being fairly enterprising, I went online and looked up "How many words in The Hunt for Red October?" 163,461 would be the answer. Since it ranks among my favorites and didn't seem crazily long, I looked no further and set 150,000 words as my first goal.
Well, it took two years and I did it. I confess, I teared up when I hit 'save' that day. I did some polishing and some editing and began peddling my work to literary agents. And was rejected repeatedly! A couple were nice enough to tell me that my work was too long, which led me to do some more research.
Ack! Most first novels are in the 70,000 - 80,000 word range. Muttering under my breath, I went back to one of my very first thoughts and decided that it needed to become a trilogy. Conveniently, I pretty much had parts one (American Revolution 2056) and two (American Storm) done.
Conveniently, I even have the very end/last chapter of the saga (American Dawn) since for something like this you have to know how it's going to end if you're going to write it at all.
Then, in 1996, he wrote an epic story of WWIII called "Red Storm Rising." He talked about the challenge of telling a global story on a human level and how he went about breaking it down. Inspiring is what I call that! AR56 is a tale of a national rebellion- how do you make that manageable? Break it down into some bite size pieces. Like I said, inspiration!
A side note for those unfamiliar with his work, he was also a great visionary of the future. In one of his books (1994's "Debt of Honor) has someone fly a 747 into a building (the US Capitol) as a weapon. Sound familiar? Then, in the next book (1996's "Executive Orders") the US faces an Ebola attack, which requires a nationwide quarantine and even legal challenges to it. I'd say he foresaw the future pretty well.
For better or worse, I blame/credit Tom Clancy for the fact that I now have more done than I'd planned...a lot more. And he gives me hope for my own future. Thank you, sir. Rest in peace.
Read several of his novels and liked them a lot. A good inspiration to study.
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