Mike Newton - Writing Westerns: How to Craft Novels that Evoke the Spirit of the West

I was raised on Westerns, in an era when horse operas dominated movie screens and television schedules. The year I entered public school, Hollywood released eleven Western feature films, and twenty Western series occupied TVs prime time.

I loved them.

By the time I graduated from high school, Westerns had changed. Aside from graphic violence and buckets of blood, they challenged audiences with a host of moral quandaries and antiheroes. Outlaws were more likely to be sympathetic characters than were the lawmen who pursued them. Backshooting was common, personal hygiene was a distant afterthought.

And still, I loved them.

A decade later, as a fledgling freelance novelist, I felt as comfortable in the Old West as with modern thrillers and the noir domain of crime. A California native, finishing the first half of my life in the Nevada desert, all my roots and memories were firmly planted in the West. Today, with twenty-seven Western novels published, I still regard the genre as one of my favorites.

It may be history, but it never gets old.

Western movies dont appear as frequently today, as they did in the 1960s, but those that make the cut in Hollywood prompt frequent Oscar buzz. Clint Eastwoods Unforgiven claimed four Academy Awards (out of nine nominations) and twenty other prestigious prizes in 1993. The remake of Elmore Leonards 3:10 to Yuma earned seventeen award nominations in 2008 (two Oscar nods among them), claiming a Western Heritage Award and a prize for star Christian Bale from the San Diego Film Critics Society. Another remakeof True Grit, in 2010, with Jeff Bridges in the Rooster Cogburn role that brought John Wayne his only Oscarwon twenty-seven awards out of a staggering 110 nominations from various film societies.

Nor have Western novels been eclipsed by Hollywood. In 2010, Amazon.com offered 213 new Western novels for sale (including two of mine), plus many reprints of older classics. In September of that year, Pocket Books announced plans to publish Jubals Bounty, written by Gene Hackman, a veteran of six Western films since 1971, who won his second Oscar for portraying Unforgivens sadistic small-town sheriff, Little Bill Daggett.

The bottom line: If publishers released an average of four new Western novels per week during 2010, when a global recession dictated cutbacks in print runs and gambling on untested authors, it means that readers are buying. The market is alive and well.

Writing Westerns examines what a Western is, while teaching you how to research and write one. Youll benefit from my experience248 books published since 1977, with twelve more under contractand the example of masters in the field, from Zane Grey and Max Brand to Louis LAmour and Cormac McCarthy. The text is arranged in topical chapters, as follows:

• Chapter 1 defines the Western genre and its various subgenres, and provides a historical overview of Western fiction and films, including their evolving trends and themes.
• Chapter 2 sketches the expansion of the American West from colonial times to the early twentieth century. It reviews the changing lifestyles, conflicts, and social issues that can bolster authenticity when one writes of various eras.
• Chapter 3 examines the archetypal Western lawman and outlaw, using historical examples that provide the key to creating dynamic, realistic characters.
• Chapter 4 explores the weapons of the West, from muzzle loaders to machine guns, and offers a primer for authors who may not be veteran shooters themselves.
• Chapter 5 discusses race and gender on the frontier, with an eye toward the creation of compelling characters and the avoidance of offensive stereotypes that may sabotage sales.
• Chapter 6 charts the parameters of research necessary to ensure historical authenticity without turning fiction dry as desert sand.

Each chapter includes a short list of recommended sources for further reading. Appendices to the main text include a glossary of Old West slang and jargon, which is helpful in writing realistic dialogue, a timeline of significant historical events, and a list of classic Western films and novels.

Research, talent, and imagination are the keys to writing a successful novel.

Join me now, as we set off into the West.