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 This is a continuation of my blogging here at WdC |
| Writing Westerns Well, this was unexpected! Those who have listened to me on the radio have heard Roger, the guy who hosts the show. Well, he is a rather accomplished author. He spent a lot of the 1990s and 2000s writing Western novels (as in, the US Old West) which he sold to a UK publisher, and which still sell in the European market. Yes, an Australian writing a US genre selling to the UK and popular in Europe… only in writing, huh? In fact, I recently learnt that he is in the top 50 authors for number of books traditionally published in this country! He now self-publishes historical romance because he’s older and feels he’s earned the right. Hard to argue. Anyway, he found my published Western short story and he loved it. So we did a Zoom call with his publisher, who is looking for some new Western writers, and his advice is what I am going to share now (and, yes, I did ask, and, yes, he said I could). 1) Setting The setting needs to be in a desert region of the United States or northern Mexico, in a town, a farm area, or the open plain/canyons. It is really that simple. And, more importantly, it needs to be set in a time when horses were the only mode of transport (oh, and shank’s pony). Contemporary westerns, westerns set in big cities, and westerns with cars and things just do not sell as well. The publisher said that this part of US history is very much mythologised and probably never really existed the way it is portrayed on the big screen or in populist fiction, but it is what is expected by readers. 2) Characters This was simple – think John Wayne, Gary Cooper, Henry Fonda, et al. The white hat wearing good guys, rather stoic, quick on the draw, but with very few friends. He made a point that the shades of grey hero as exemplified by Clint Eastwood and Lee Van Cleef might work on the big screen, but this does not translate to good book sales. There is a trend towards female main characters, and the only difference is they are shown with more compassion and have to be more reluctant to use a gun, but, in the end, they should end up being (and I quote) “Gary Cooper with breasts and a cute face”. 3) Relationships There should be very few. You might have two friends or a hero and a sidekick, and that is all fine and dandy, but they do not gather other friends (unless you are doing recurring characters and this is a friendship origin story). They also do not gather love interests. A hero (or heroine) should never be shown in an intimate relationship unless they are married. There is no hanky-panky, no extra-marital sex, no casual flings – nothing like that on the page. In fact, treat your female MC as a nun and you’ll be right. If a hero spends a night in the room of a saloon girl, then do not show it. After all, he could have slept on the chair. And never mention having sex. Readers further do not like young children. It might have worked in the film True Grit, but not on the page. If the Widow Spanky has 2 kids, that’s fine; if a kid becomes an off-sider, that’s not. Children should not be a part of the story until they are 16 or so. 4) Weapons There are three weapons used – rifle, shotgun and revolver. You don’t have to mention the name or brand of them – readers tend to fill in the blanks – but if you do, do your research to make sure the weapons are era appropriate, and were actually used in the USA. Machine gun adjacent weaponry should only be used by bad guys, and cannons or heavy artillery by the army. Yes, that is not the way it happened, but the reader expectations are such. 5) Horses and Other Animals Do your research to make sure you know how far horses can travel in a day, what speed they can do, and for how long. Readers will know after so long. Heroes are allowed to have a trusty steed (think The Lone Ranger’s Silver), but if not, then horse transfer stations are expected. Horses should only be killed as a last resort or to give the hero a reason for being on foot or for seeking revenge or to make the stakes higher. Minimise horse death. No matter how hungry – they never eat horses!. Rattlesnake first. Heroes only work with cattle or sheep runs as temporary job. Dogs are rarely sidekicks in westerns; readers are not fans, apparently of having non-horse pets. Otherwise, just make sure the animals encountered lived in the region at that time. 6) Ending Unless it is the last book of a long running series featuring a recurring character and he is old, NEVER kill the hero on the page. Readers do not like that at all. Going further, each story needs to be a standalone. Even if you have a recurring character (or 2), a reader should be able to read a story without having read the ones before. Events from previous books might have an impact on the current one, but it should be alluded to such that reading that older book does not matter. It is a tough line to walk, but it is what the readers demand. Other things like length, language used, etc. is down to each publishing house. As a general rule, no swearing though, but blasphemy is fine. Don’t overuse cowboy jargon, but also don’t leave it out. Also make sure you have historical facts (number of states, names of states, names of local Indian peoples, etc.) correct. There are reader expectations. Westerns are growing in popularity again at the moment (the whole escapism thing, people yearning for a time when the USA was simpler), so it might be worth giving it a go. |
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