So, You want to Write Western Fiction
LASSO YOUR PUBLISHER WITH HIGH-FALOOTIN' WESTERN FARE

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W. R. Benton

I am often asked how I get a publisher to look at my western fiction, bearing in mind the already flooded market, and how I go about having them read beyond the first paragraph. To that end I have five rules that I consider essential in preparing my manuscripts for submission. Ride 'em out, rawhide!

1) Consider your audience carefully. Most western fiction readers have a better than average knowledge of history. They'll bust you immediately if your book has any serious inaccuracies in it. While you don’t have to know everything about the west to write about it, your writing must be historically accurate to a large degree. I round up a veritable stampede of research on any western fiction I intend to write. It aids me in developing not only the particularly primitive lifestyle and the equipment, weapons, geography, social mores and language that go with it, but the story's setting as well.

Research and imagination must co-exist to create believable western settings.

2) Develop a solid plot that has a lot of action and adventure woven into it, but make sure it's believable.

Western fiction readers read to be transported to another era. So keep in mind the constant battle for survival that most folks faced in those days. Men and women met, fell in love, got married and had families, with nary a hint of sex, against the backdrop of the dangers and constant pressures of discovering a new land. When I do have a sex scene in a book, I usually take the reader just so far . . . and then fade out. Fodder for endless stories will arise from just imagining, in this modern age, their hardships.

3) Keep your dialog consistent. Most people in the 1800’s were very poorly educated, though there were exceptions, and not many of them could do much more than write their names or read small portions of the Bible. Make sure your dialog reflects this, but don’t use it to the point that it becomes hard for the reader to follow what is being said. I don’t think it matters a great deal which phonetic spellings you may use as long as you use the same spelling all the time.

4) Make your main character a person who is revered.

He/she should be a person of deep thought and vast knowledge, a crusader for justice and a champion of the American "way." While it is not necessary for them to be full of book-larnin', they should should be a hitchin' post of humanity, abundantly capable of rational, logical thought processes and master of his/her emotions (cowboys/girls don't cry). Brilliant, but self-taught, and from the school of hard knocks. Regardless of the character's education, he/she must be an individual of rare intelligence and the highest personal integrity. And, they must stand up to evil, with no back down in ‘em.

5) Start your book with action right off the bat! Do yourself a favor. You might try a gunfight or Indian attack. I almost immediately place my primary character in a life-threatening situation -- in western fiction, a sure-fire attention grabber. To keep it, at the end of the chapter, leave the situation suspended, playing on the reader's subconscious. And just keep that action and adventure comin' throughout, you ol' rattlesnake, you!

Now, y'all pull up a high-backed chair, hang up your six-shooters, kick off them boots and tell me your tallest tale of the Old West, pardner!

Article first published by Inkwell Newswatch athttp://www.fwointl.com/in.html