Writing Lessons: Robert Asprin

I know I have problems with my writing. One of those problems is prevarication. Another is hooptedoodle. And when prevarication and hooptedoodle combine, it’s not a good thing.
So I’m turning to successful writers to see what they do.

Robert Asprin, author of the popular Myth series, is not a prevaricator. He gets you right into the story. Even if you’re not familiar with the Myth world.

Here, as an example, is his how he introduces readers new to the series to the stories’ basic premise in Myth Directions, Book 3 in the series:

“I lose my powers to a stupid practical joker, and instead of concentrating on getting them back, I take on some twit of an apprentice who doesn’t have any aspirations higher than being a thief, train him, groom him, and get him a job paying more than he could spend in two lifetimes, and what happens? He complains! I suppose you think you could have done better on your own?”

This is all shouted by the character Ahaz on page 1 – page 1 – of the novel, and you get right away that he’s a prickly number to deal with as well. And you know enough about the story to get into it, without having read the first two books (there are enough hints scattered throughout the book to indicate that if you like this one, you should go back to read the others, just so you understand some of the references made. But there’s enough here to get you into the story.

I’m amazed at this. I mean it’s basic skill of the craft. But to see it when you know it’s what you need to do is helpful. (Caveat: My writing style is not the same as Asprin’s style; ergo I may naturally want to leave more prevarication and hooptedoodle than he does. But I can still learn about moving a story forward.)

Maybe Doleful Creatures prevaricates because I’m new to the story myself. And maybe that’s a sign I need to get more familiar with the story and my characters.

More on moving forward:

Asprin uses the Louis L’Amour method of writing – ending every chapter on some kind of cliffhanger. He does this in Myth Directions by bringing a new character into the story right after setting the stage for SKeeve – the main character – and his desire to go wandering through the dimensions.

I don’t do that in particular. And maybe I should. But it’s not my style of writing, so I have to wonder if that’s a tool I need to add to the toolbox.

But it does help Asprin keep the story moving. He may introduce a little hooptedoodle here and there, but he sets the goal of making sure the story is moving again and again and again. So that could be a good thing. Although it smacks me as hokey.