Marilyn Henderson didn’t always see her life as a successful fiction author, “Before the term mid-life crisis became part of our popular vocabulary, I had one. I had a degree in Chemistry, a nice job in the Midwest, a husband and four children, when an old back injury started me wondering if I could find a new career that let me work from home. From time to time over the years since I'd left Brooklyn, my love of reading had made me wonder if I might someday write.”
And write she did, with short stories, more than sixty novels, and numerous articles on the writing craft, Henderson took that “mid-life crisis” and funneled it into a successful writing, and writing coach, career. After forty-two years of writing and selling her own novels, Henderson passes her knowledge on to other writers by sharing the tips and tricks she has picked up from selling writers, editors, and agents throughout her career as a mystery writer.
R&T: When you first started out, you wrote under male pseudonyms, can you tell us why?
MH: The mentor who helped me at the start of my career wrote action/adventure and mystery/suspense paperback originals, so that's where I began. Back in the 1960's, many editors didn't believe women could write believable men's fiction, which is what those categories were called. I wanted to sell what I wrote, so I followed my mentor's advice and used male pseudonyms. Writing those books was good training because I learned to plot well so the action moved from start to finish. It also helped me learn the difference between how women and men think and react, which is vital to good characterization.
R&T: When did you begin writing seriously for publication? And, on the flipside of that, when did you begin writing just because you wanted to?
MH: I was always writing as a kid—letters, summaries of books I read; the start of a mystery novel one summer. I won a state-wide essay contest when I was in high school. As a young mother, I wrote a neighborhood news column for the local paper and did the PTA newsletter. All that was writing because I wanted to write.
When I decided to try writing for a living, I did it with the goal of being paid for what I wrote. When my mentor "adopted" me, he taught me how to write for my audience instead of myself. That's what it takes to sell.
It makes sense if you look at it logically. The mystery genre is a good illustration. You can't sell a cozy mystery novel to a publisher of police procedurals or action/adventure to a publisher of romantic suspense. It’s up to the author to know where her book will sell, then writing it so it does.
You need to know your market and write for it, not write and hope to find a market.
R&T: Do you have a favorite author, and/or do you cross-genres when you read for pleasure? Are there authors that you read for insights into your own writing?
MH: I read everything across the genre and beyond. Sometimes I get tired of a type and take a vacation from it for a few months, but even so, if someone recommends one or it gets interesting reviews, I'll go back to the subgenre without hesitation. I also read all my friends' books, not to mention books written by the writers I mentor.
I don't read other authors to gain insights into my own work, but I never fail to get some from every book I read. I like Michael Conelly's challenging plots, Helen Dunsmore's poetic prose, Elmore Leonard's exciting dialogue. I like writers who tell good stories that are written well.
R&T: You have published short stories, more than sixty novels, articles on the craft of writing, the coaching you do, and your critique services. How do you keep up with it all without going insane?
MH: I dunno. I just do it. I go to the computer by eight in the morning just as I always went to the lab when I was in chemistry, and I work through until the national news comes on at five-thirty. I do manuscript reading in the evenings and also write critiques or letters then. They're all part of being a writer and I do them. I don't keep a rigid schedule but I get things done when they need to be done. And there's always time for phone calls, lunch dates, or a long walk on a nice day. I have a lot more freedom than most office workers.
It's a matter of perception. Most writers do something else for a living, so the multiple tasks needed for a writing career seem overwhelming. They aren't when it's all you do. We don't ask our dentist how he manages to do fillings, pull teeth, run his office, volunteer at a clinic, keep up with dental journals, and lecture at the dental school. Writing just seems more exotic.
R&T: How important is your writing to you? Or perhaps I can ask, what do you enjoy more, the writing, or the business aspect of your coaching-critiquing?
MH: To be honest, I truly like both sides. When I started MysteryMentor.com, I expected to miss writing full time, but I find the two sides balance nicely. I also realized I had been mentoring and critiquing manuscripts for many years for friends and people who heard about me and asked if I would critique their work.
When I lived in Los Angeles and New York, I "coached" over lunch often, and I belonged to groups and workshops where other writers looked for input about their work. Adding the "business" side only made it an integral part of what I had been doing for so long. I think it also satisfies that logical side of my brain that originally led me into research chemistry.
R&T: When your day begins, how do you get started? Do you ever have difficulty, and if so, how do you motivate yourself?
MH: I head into the office as soon as I finish breakfast, taking my coffee with me. I check my email but don't answer anything that isn't urgent. I try not to make appointments until after two o'clock, if possible. I also don't encourage phone calls during my working hours, though I answer the phone if it rings.
Patience has never been my long suit, and I have reached an age where it's no longer a virtue. I don't spend time with people I don't enjoy and who don't enrich my life. I hang up politely on sales calls, pleas for donations, especially of my time, and am not afraid to tell people that I'm busy when I am. I don't think that makes me a bad person, and maybe it helps account for my getting as much done as I do.
Of course, I have a bad day once in a while or even a bad week. Weather permitting, a good brisk walk outdoors will often clear out the cobwebs and give me time to talk myself out of any gloomy thoughts. If that doesn't work, a phone call to my oldest daughter does. She's my "life coach” and challenges me by reminding me of all the things I once said to spur her on when she needed it. It really interrupts any mental patterns to hear your words come back at you from your kids' mouths. It gets me going every time.
A few weeks ago, I let a bad day stretch into three before I called. She asked why I hadn't called sooner. I had to be honest and say I wasn't ready to be talked out of being mad and gloomy until then. Boy, talk about getting insights into yourself.
R&T: Pertaining to the above question, what advice do you have for other writers in regards to managing their time?
MH: I have pretty well covered anything I have that resembles a schedule, but I would like to add that much of it is possible because I live alone. I can eat cold cereal for breakfast and take my coffee to the computer if I want to. I can stay up late to finish something or take a day off to do something alone or with friends.
Also, I have been writing, teaching, and critiquing work for others for more than forty years. It isn't surprising that I can do these things faster and more easily than many writers who haven't mastered the techniques yet, and caught on to how the publishing game works.
I love telling the story of when I was only months into my writing "career" meeting very well established British crime writer, John Creasey. In answer to a question, he said he wrote twenty pages a day. Astonished, I gasped and asked how in the world he managed such an impressive output, and that I barely managed two pages. I have never forgotten his answer.
"You don't have to do it for a living, my dear."
We crawl before we can walk. When we're strong enough to race, we set increasing goals until we reach the level we want. Not everyone wants to win the Tour d'France or climb the Matterhorn.
My advice to writers is, know where you want to go, and then decide how long you want to spend getting there. If you break that amount of time down into weeks or months, you can create your personal time line to reach your goal. The average novel is 300 to 400 pages long. How many pages do you need to write every year, month week or day?
The best advice I have for any writer is to set aside time every day for your writing. Do it to fit your own schedule, and also have an alternate time to fall back on if life interrupts your regular schedule. Even if you write only one page a day, you can have a draft of your book done in one year.
The best advice I ever got was not to edit as I go along. You can nit-pick your work to death. Once you get your story down you see it from a better perspective and can revise, edit, or rewrite it to final copy.
Set a time and write every day. It helps you keep focused and your goal steadily gets closer.
R&T: You offer critiquing services, what mistakes, or stumbling blocks, to getting that agent, or acquiring an editor for publication, do you see most often that writers make?
MH: The most common problem in the writing itself is not creating vivid scenes that pull the reader into the action. The writers tell the story instead of showing it. Running a close second is not thinking out the story well enough ahead of time to be sure it will sustain the middle of the book and build suspense and dramatic tension right up to the big finale.
In presenting the manuscript, the biggest mistake is not writing a query letter that pushes emotional buttons to excite the agent or editor. If you can't make those two readers eager to read the manuscript, it doesn't become a published novel.
R&T: Do you ever get writer’s block, or become exhausted from all you do? If so, what do you do to overcome it so you can move ahead?
MH: Sure I do, but writer's block is all in your head, an idea, not a physical thing, so I change my mind. I walk it out by myself, talk it out with someone, or I change pace completely by doing something physical instead of mental. I clean a closet, sort the bookcase, wash the kitchen floor, clean off my desk. It works the same way as not being able to remember someone's name and then having it pop up in your memory when you're thinking about something completely different.
R&T: How long does it take for you to complete a novel? What about the first one?
MH: About six to eight months, though the idea may have been percolating a while before I start.
The first book took about five months because my mentor worked with me and I was accountable for a chapter every week. Also, the book was a short one by today's standards, about 225 manuscript pages, that was average length for paperbacks in those days.
R&T: You are in the business of helping writers, for example, your book Writing a Novel that Sells, what insights can you give new writers trying to break in?
MH: Develop your idea until it is as good as you can possibly make it. More manuscripts are rejected because they are not different enough from all the others the agent or editor reads than for any other single reason. Then write, write, write. I promise you can write a novel that sells, but I don't promise it will be easy—and it may not be the first one you finish. It takes time to master techniques and learn to apply them skillfully.
An editor once remarked that it takes as long and is as hard to write a bad novel as it does a good one. The smart writer learns what makes a good one as early as possible.
R&T: What are you working on now?
MH: I'm ready to start a new suspense novel. My annual trip to New York at the end of April to meet with my agent and editors always inspires me to get going on a new project. Also, after dining out steadily for eight days, I am content to live on my own cooking for a while.
R&T: With all of your success, do you feel validated as a writer?
MH: Yes, I do. I've had a lot of fun and made a lot of friends along the way. A long time ago, I asked my mentor what I could do to repay him for his help. He said, "Pass it on some day." Now I do that as Mystery Mentor, and I feel good about that promise kept,
You can learn more about Marilyn from her website.
Kat is too quirky-chaotic to survive in the real world, so she left behind her beloved moss-filled grandfather oak trees in South Louisiana and escaped to her mountain fiction world in North Carolina where she spins tales, drinks Deep Creek Blend coffee, an occasional glass of wine, an even more occasional glass of vodka tonic with lime, and contemplates the glow of old Moon. Her first completed fiction novel is with an agent, and she hopes to eventually find publishing homes for all her work--novels, short stories, and creative non-fiction.
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