Writers by Michael Garrett

Writers are entertainers who

perform on pages rather than stage or screen

I originally started this article by stating that I’ve been a published author for over forty years. I’ve been a writer, however, my whole life—there were just times when I didn’t write.

It’s easy to get caught up in the artistic side of writing, but the bottom line is that we are entertainers who perform on pages rather than stage or screen. We have a more intimate relationship with our audience because our stories are projected into the minds of our readers and we share hours and hours of their time. As entertainers, we must be forever conscious of what our readers expect from us, and if we wish to be successful, we must consistently deliver our best performance. The opinion of our readers is far more important than our own.

For instance, consider a stand-up comedian. What if the joke that he thinks is the best that he’s ever written doesn’t get any laughs? He might personally love the joke, but he’d better stop using it.

I’m a strong believer in outlines. Not the formal Roman numeral type that we were taught in school. Not even necessarily one that’s written down. To me, an outline is simply a plan, and it can be in my mind alone. I always need to know in which direction I should be headed. If I write without a plan, I tend to ramble with no direction in mind. After all, filling pages with words is not writing. Those words must work together to advance the story line.

I hate irrelevant detail when I read for pleasure. Some 100,000 word novels, in truth, should only be 75,000. Those authors probably wrote without a plan.

My first and only secular novel, Keeper, was originally published in 1990. It remains available almost thirty-five years later in print, digital, and audio formats, and it was optioned for a television movie in the ‘90s, which unfortunately never got off the ground.

As a writer, I feel as if my work is never finished, not even after it’s published. Not long after Keeper was originally released I realized that I could have taken it in a much better direction and regretted that I couldn’t immediately withdraw the book from circulation for a rewrite.

Absent from writing for the next thirty years, I had become a different person. Following a spiritual awakening, I felt compelled to use my God-given talent as a writer to honor Him and the graceful way that Jesus’ forgiving presence in my life has led me to a state of happiness that I never dreamed possible.

I had a second chance with Keeper by rewriting it for the Christian market and re-developing it as I had wished to do those many years before. I eliminated several supporting characters and added a major new one. The second-chance result, CAPTIVE, a Firebird Book Award winner and a 2023 Best Book Award finalist, is far better than the original. No swearing or sex this time.

My philosophy as a writer is that the purpose of page one is to convince the reader to read page two. The purpose of page two is to convince the reader to read page three, and so on.

Keeping my readers’ interests in mind, I try to grab their attention on page one, line one, providing a solid reason to keep reading. CAPTIVE’s opening line is:

HE COULDN’T DIVERT his attention from the crusted blood on the passenger-side floorboard.

Blood on the floorboard—someone has been seriously injured or killed!

I self-published CAPTIVE on Kindle even though I could have done so through a traditional publisher. I followed the same creative approach in writing it, though, because self-publication does not excuse an author from meeting commercial publishing standards. The jury is still out on self-publication versus traditional.

The opening line of my latest Christian romantic suspense novel, Nothing to Lose,  is:

TENSION INSIDE THE CAR had steadily risen before they even arrived at the proposed contract hit site.

Someone is about to be murdered!

Nothing to Lose is a serious departure from my previous works—it’s an unconventional love story. In my old age I’ve become somewhat of a softie and I find love stories to be quite heart-warming as long as they’re not formulaic and predictable. Nothing to Lose is a love story that takes place against a backdrop of suspense, and quite honestly, it was the only time I’ve ever cried while writing a scene. Don’t expect a standard romance here; this is a love that could only be engineered by God.

Over the Edge, the follow-up novel to the above, also became a Firebird Book Award winner and a 2023 American Fiction Award winner. For fans of the first book it answers the question of “what happens next?”

For those of you who may be unpublished writers, I return to my statement at the top of this article: Writers are entertainers who perform on pages rather than stage or screen. Prepare for your greatest performance by writing and rewriting as many times as it takes. Read your work out loud, and if you stumble in places, revise those sections. When it’s the best that you can possibly do, hire a top-notch book editor to point out where it still needs work to meet professional standards, then rewrite again.

For me, rewriting is the key to my success. As Truman Capote once said, writing without rewriting is only typing.

Will I pen novel number four? I really can’t say at this point. I don’t write just for the sake of writing; I need inspiration, so if God points me in that direction again I’ll go at it vigorously.

Every day I enjoy the fruits of God’s blessings.

It has, indeed, been a wonderful life, and it only gets better.

Life is good.

Michael Garrett holds the distinction of having served as Stephen King’s first editor and publisher. He’s one of the world’s top independent book editors, living in a small Alabama town. His life revolves around God, his wife of 35+ years, Sharon, two adult children, five grandchildren, a dachshund, and one grand dog.

As a former Writer’s Digest School Editorial Associate and contracted editor with Pocket Books and Kensington Publishing, Michael has worked with scores of highly successful authors, as well as hundreds of new writers seeking publication. For over twenty years he taught a highly acclaimed writing workshop series on college campuses coast-to-coast.

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