"The Creative Process of Writing
is a Liberating and Therapeutic Experience"
www.virtualwritingcoach.com
April, 2009
In This Issue:
1. Preview
2. Publisher's Note
3. Fact or Fiction
4. Helpful Hints
1. Preview
The Writer's Connection explores the creative process
of writing and the interplay between thoughts, feelings,
and actions. We are an interactive community of authors
and readers who share ideas to enhance our knowledge,
skills, and experiences in writing fiction in any genre,
but our emphasis remains mystery and suspense thrillers.
Published monthly, the Newsletter offers writing tips
for authors, coaching suggestions, editing, and marketing
information.
Topics are presented from the perspective of Keith Barton
and represent only his ideas on producing your first manuscript,
and are provided to the general public. Because we are
an interactive community of writers, other viewpoints
are welcomed and may be printed in future monthly newsletters
with permission from Keith Barton.
2. Publisher's Note
April, 2009
Dear Writer's Connection Subscriber,
This month's newsletter features: Fact or Fiction
3. Fact or Fiction
After five years of producing my writer's newsletter, I am torn between talking about
something dry and academic versus something entertaining. Both are books: the nonfiction
piece entitled
Nudge, by Robert Thaler and Cass Sunstein, is about decision making using
social psychology and economic principles; the second piece is John Grisham's latest
offering,
The Associate. Can you tell which one is dry and which one is entertaining?
So in an effort to remain neutral and to appeal to at least half of my audience let me
briefly describe why I think both books are important.
Robert Thaler is Professor of Behavioral Science and Economics
at the University of Chicago and his long-time writer
and friend is Cass Sunstein, Felix Frankfurter Professor
of Law at Harvard Law School. I reported an excerpt on
their theory in an earlier business newsletter that many
of the writers of fiction may not have seen. In essence,
Thaler & Sunstein's book is especially important in today's
economic times. It resembles game theory in some respects
but is more like a decision tree depending on whether
people opt in or out of various decisions about health,
wealth, and happiness. Their framework includes a concept
called "choice architecture" in which certain
decisions occur depending on how the question is framed.
Consider a blackjack table in Las Vegas. There are two
pots of money: yours and the House. If you win big, you
tend to play with what you think is the House's money
(when it really belongs to you while you have it) and
tend to take risks because you think it's free money.
Conversely, when you borrow against your money (credit
card cash advance) you tend to play conservatively and
pass certain wins: either way you lose and the House wins.
Another example is retirement accounts. With opt-in programs, we are presented with a myriad of
401k plans that can be changed annually, but very few of us actually change them from their
default value (e.g. money markets) because of status quo and our own mindlessness. Naïve investing
occurs when we try to play market rallies rather than income averaging over a long period of time.
To be sure, we have the opportunity and flexibility to change the mix of investments depending on
volatility from conservative prime money markets to foreign currency and commodity markets.
Thaler and Sunstein's theory posits that an opt-out program
is preferable as the default value because people typically
do not like to make decisions, e.g., an automatic 401k
deduction is taken from your check unless you notify your
employer that you do not want to save for tomorrow. Other
interesting chapters have to do with school vouchers,
increasing organ donations, prescription drug costs, and
privatizing marriage. For the cerebral types I highly
recommend
Nudge as an explanation that there's
no such thing as chance and random events.
For the less cerebral folks (myself included), I disagree
with many of the two- and three-star reviews of Grisham's
latest thriller,
The Associate. The book takes
place in New York City at a big Wall Street law firm that
is spying on a competitor law firm for information on
a big defense contract that means billions of dollars
for the winning firm. The story is reminiscent of Mitch
McDeere in
The Firm which was later made into
a motion picture with Tom Cruise.
Grisham's plot is part spy thriller, part legal thriller,
and part morality trumps greed. The central character,
Kyle McAvoy is followed by Bennie who works for the mob
who extorts Kyle to work in a firm that bills at $400
an hour for bogus work. After his best friend gets killed,
Kyle decides to enlist the help of his attorney father
in York, Pennsylvania to help him out of this Machiavellian
horror chamber. A sequel is definitely in the works, with
the anticlimatic ending which disappoints most readers.
For me, however; the ending is typical Grisham who does
not follow a script with neatly tied ends. Look for another
Grisham novel that continues with Kyle and his father.
Helpful Hints:
- Do you prefer fiction or nonfiction and why?
- Nonfiction writing is more rigorous with notes to
back up facts; anyone who cranks out nonfiction books
annually has a helluva research team or their books
deal with redundant themes, i.e., Ann Coulter.
- Even for Grisham fans, his latest offering is disappointing
to some because they expect him to hit a home run
every time he writes. What do you consider his worst
novel to be and why?
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Contact Information
Keith Barton, Ph.D.
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Fax:281-583-5008
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(c) Copyright 2009 A. Keith Barton, Ph.D.
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The Writer's Connection SM Mission:
The Writer's Connection
SM is dedicated to
helping first-time authors create their first manuscript
for publication and to offer an exchange of ideas and
opinions from our readers who might be interested in becoming
authors.
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About Keith Barton, Ph.D.
Dr. Barton received his Ph.D. in 1972 from the University
of Texas at Austin and has been a practicing therapist
for over thirty years. He is currently enrolled in MentorCoach
and is accepting new clients.
He has been an adjunct professor at the University of South Carolina,
consultant to Fortune 500 companies in executive development, founded
and managed Texas Community Living Ventures, Inc., in 1986 for providing
group home services to persons with mental retardation. Keith founded
and has been running a clinical practice in Northwest Houston since 1990.
He writes part-time with the goal of completing one novel
a year. His desire to coach others derives from his passionate
interest in helping others become attuned to their creative
powers of storytelling.
Dr. Barton has training in coaching, cognitive and family
therapy and health psychology. He has published articles,
made presentations and conducted workshops about:
Anxiety and achievement
Stress management
Self-esteem
Communication skills
Marital/relationship enrichment
Wellness issues
The relationship between psychology and spirituality
