Sisters in Crime is a national writing organization founded in 1986 to promote the advancement and professional development of women crime writers. As President of the Colorado Chapter, I’ve spent the last several months planning a big event for our members. It was the perfect send-off of my presidency, which is up at the end of this year. (2024 will find me as the Immediate Past President.)
Best-selling thriller author of The House Guest, The Other Woman, The First to Lie, and Trust Me (among so many others), Hank Phillippi Ryan, spoke with our group on crafting the perfect first sentence, as well as the beginning, of a novel, and left us with some tips on making the most of our writing careers and remembering to find–and keep–the joy in the process. What an outstanding presentation and a magical day filled with learning, brainstorming ideas, discussing the writing life, likes and dislikes of prologues, and the endless creative energy that comes from being in a room full of other creatives.
Not unlike professions like police officers, lawyers, doctors, and so on, authors understand the business of being a writer that those outside of the community can’t.
- Writing takes time.
- Producing words means saying “no” to a lot of other things that suck up your time. (Social media anyone?)
- It also means saying “no” to others’ requests for your time in order to keep and honor a writing schedule.
- Sometimes it takes saying “no” to things you really want to do if you’re up against a deadline.
- Writing is hard work! As Hemingway said, “There is nothing to writing. All you do is sit down at a typewriter and bleed.”
Writing doesn’t happen by itself and one doesn’t just sit down and push out a book. It takes many months, oftentimes more, of outlining, researching, getting the first draft down, continuing to learn the craft, several rounds of revisions, sending the manuscript to beta readers, proofreading, cover design, querying if the author decides to publish via the traditional route and becoming a “business” is the author decides to publish via the indie route, and a whole lot of waiting in between. Mystery authors are a special breed who “get” each other.
Let’s be honest. Who, other than a mystery writer, has an unending search history on their computer of ways to create the perfect murder, how fast poisons work and the symptoms of each, the different types of guns and the damage they do, how fast decomposition happens, the best method of murder to get away with, unashamedly eavedrops on conversations in the grocery isle (or anywhere, for that matter), spends hours living in fictional worlds with fictional characters who become as real as the people on the street. It’s not at all unusual for patrons at a table in a restaurant to be aghast at conversations they overhear from a nearby table of mystery writers.
Penning a novel is a solitary endeavor, but the writing life is a community. A perfect combination for the perfect balance. One I’m so grateful to be a part of.
Welcome to the Online Home of Author Rhonda Blackhurst 
I always knew you were one of the cool kids, but you keep proving it! (I didn’t even know Sisters in Crime was an organization, but to be in charge of your entire state’s group? WOW!) Congratulations on so many things! I always love getting your newsletters with the new news of your writing career. So proud of you, my friend! ❤ xo
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Awww…Thank you, my friend. You’re so sweet.
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