Seldom Disappointed

It Ain’t Easy

Seldom Disappointed, a memoir by Tony Hillerman is dedicated:
“To Marie, who wanted me to do this
and to all you other writers, wannabes,
shouldbes, willbes, and hadbeens included,
I dedicate this effort. You’re the ones who
know it ain’t easy. May you get as lucky as
I have been.”

Hillerman’s detective stories featuring Joe Leaphorn and Jim Chee are among my favorite reads. Seldom Disappointed gives us a look into what makes an author. Fans of Hillerman should not miss this book. Aspiring writers can learn a lot from it.

I especially like his image of the writer as a “bag lady pushing her stolen shopping cart through life collecting throw away stuff, which, who knows, might be useful some way some day.” In the book he shows how different experiences have shown up in his books.

His story is also encouraging to any writer who has been told his work is no good or who has been rejected. Even his own agent who had placed his non-fiction work told him to forget the fiction.

He tells his journalism students that the “power to persuade lies in the ability to make people see” and sends them out to bars and bus stations to spot differences in the people and describe them so that the reader can see those details that made the students conclude what they did. If a juror appears bored, what makes him look bored? If a bus patron is drunk, what tells you that?

What memories do we have of characters we’ve met? What stands out in our minds about them? How can we describe them so that other people will come to the same conclusions about them that we did? Write, write, right now.