Weird West Newbie

JStengren

Registered
Joined
Nov 17, 2011
Messages
2
Reaction score
0
Howdy all, new to the forum. For some odd reason, I really find the "weird west" genre very appealing and want to start down that road as a budding writer. I've written tons of content for roleplaying games before (see D&D, Deadlands, Exalted) and really enjoyed it. After looking back on those days and realizing they're mostly over now, I'm thinking... Why not try my hand at fiction? After-all, the Deadlands RPG setting was all about the weird-west.

My question to you all... Question(s), rather:

1. I have next to no knowledge of the 'actual' wild-west. What's the best way to start learning more about time/place/period? I'm guessing I'd need some measure of reality to make things somewhat plausible. Any suggestions on books? I'm sure I can find movies.

2. Just how much 'reality' should one interject into a pseudo-realistic genre such as this? I'm thinking loosely based on fact/history, but no need to make things too historical.

3. Any recommendations as to current weird-west authors? Seems like a niche genre, to put it kindly.

Thanks in advance!
 

Puma

Retired and loving it!
Super Member
Registered
Joined
Apr 21, 2006
Messages
7,340
Reaction score
1,535
Location
Central Ohio
Hello, JS, and welcome to western. I think most of the writers here are more interested in the "classic" west and historical accuracy than the weird west, but we're certainly not going to turn you away.

How to get knowledge about the real west? There are several threads here in western genre that list books worth reading, owning, consulting, etc. So my first piece of advice would be to read some of the threads here and go from there. And realise, there are many threads on page 2, 3, etc. so don't necessarily limit yourself to this first page.

Second stop here would be in western share your work (SYW) which is several forums below this and password protected - but the password is easily accessible to all members. In SYW, western is almost at the bottom of the page and there are several new posts of WIPs and responses to prompts you can read. And, even though you're brand new, you can leave a response / make comments on the posts that are up (you can't post anything of your own until you have 50 cumulative posts on AW). So feel free to read the posts and let the writers know if you liked them, whether you see things that need to be fixed, etc. - and if you don't understand something, feel free to ask.

Welcome aboard. Puma
 

JStengren

Registered
Joined
Nov 17, 2011
Messages
2
Reaction score
0
Thanks for the reply. Whereabouts in this forum do weird-west'ians tend to hang out? Horror?
 

Dave Hardy

Don't let your deal go down,
Super Member
Registered
Joined
Sep 19, 2011
Messages
959
Reaction score
87
Location
'Til your last gold dollar is gone.
For Weird Western writers, I'd suggest Joe Lansdale. It doesn't get any weirder than his stuff.

Neal Barrett Jr. has a marvelously weird Western, Winter on the Belle Fourche. Robert E. Howard wrote rather a few Weird Westerns back in the day. Secret of the Lost Valley, Old Garfield's Heart, Black Canaan, &c.

Puma's quite right about Western history. If you just want an overview of American frontier history, there are lots of books you could find at a local library. The Time-Life series on the West is helpful. Just remember the West is a huge area and the era of exploration & settlement was a long one.

Movies are a great way to study narrative, imagery, & characterization. They are a horrible way to study history. You can learn history from history books, and apply it to works of fiction. That process doesn't work so well in reverse.
 

bkendall

Super Member
Registered
Joined
Aug 8, 2011
Messages
783
Reaction score
36
Location
My ol' Kentucky home
You might find more like-minded folks with the weird west niche in horror. If my memory doesn't fail me, Haggis is a horror hound that dips in the west.

But, like Puma said, even though we don't have too many of the weird west types, when we're doing challenges (it's becoming a monthly thing) all types of western are accepted. So take a look at some of the posts in SYW.

I would also suggest to stop by the new members forum, near the top of the forum selection, and introduce yourself. You can include your interests and see if anyone else out here is writing/reading the same thing.

Above all else, welcome to AW!
 

Jamesaritchie

Super Member
Registered
Joined
Feb 13, 2005
Messages
27,863
Reaction score
2,311
Read every western writer you can find, and I'd start with the classic western writers, rather than the current crop.

And read about a hundred nonfiction books dealing with every aspect of the old west. There are many, many wonderful nonfiction books out there, and reading them is pure pleasure.

I do think it's a good idea to go back in time a bit, and start with classics such as Across the Wide Missouri, and Give Your Heart to the Hawks.

And in a very real way, it was the Civil War that made the cowboy/cattle trade a quick and profitable business venture. If you don't already know how this happened, how the Civil War affected the entire country, and the cattle trade in particular, you should read a few books about this, as well.

But here's the thing. You need to know as much about the real old west, the real mountain man era, as your mind can hold, but this is a solid base that allows you to write the myth in a way that readers will believe and love.

Read Zane Grey, and Louis L'Amour to see what I mean. These two men knew the real old west intimately, but they used this knowledge only as a base for writing the myth.

Max Brand, on the other hand, knew absolutely nothing about the old west, other than what he read here and there, and didn't care a thing about historical accuracy. He still wrote some highly entertaining books, but was smart enough to use what little knowledge he did have in a wonderful way, and avoid areas he didn't know anything about. He walked a tightrope, and did it well. Not many can pull this off.

Anyway, have fun. Read everything you can, fiction and nonfiction, and if at all possible, get out there and look around. You have to see that land to believe it.
 

Shadow_Ferret

Court Jester
Super Member
Registered
Joined
Apr 26, 2005
Messages
23,708
Reaction score
10,657
Location
In a world of my own making
Website
shadowferret.wordpress.com
Welcome aboard, JStengren!

JamesARitchie has some good advice, read a lot in the western genre. There are many classics. He mentioned Lamour ("Hondo" is a good example) and Grey ("Riders of the Purple Sage" is a good one) to start. But some other great classic westerns are "True Grit" by Charles Portis, "Shane" by Jack Schaefer, "The Virginian" by Owen Wister, "The Ox-bow Incident" by Walter Van Tilburg Clark, to name just a few.

You can check out the thread on Western History Books.

And for more reading and watching, check out Favorite Westerns.

Thanks for the reply. Whereabouts in this forum do weird-west'ians tend to hang out? Horror?

I hang out here.
 

BigWords

Geekzilla
Super Member
Registered
Joined
May 22, 2009
Messages
10,670
Reaction score
2,360
Location
inside the machine
"Weird West" is a bit of a bastard genre - there are elements of fantasy, horror, and sometimes science fiction. The current crop of writers are moving it away from the 'sideways history' which was an outgrowing of the so-called "true stories" published in the time of the old west - cheap, lurid novels playing on the belief of what the west was rather than what the west actually was. Ironically, most of the material of this type was written by people who had never stepped outside New York, therefore the continuation of fictitious material replacing the historical content into the pulps and beyond (especially the hilarious Pecos Bill stories) has its roots not in history but original fiction.

Think of writing Weird West stories as being in the same vein as steampunk - some might be set in Victorian London, but they can owe more to film, television, pulp magazines and comic books than they do to historical events.
 

HarryHoskins

Straw-fed
Kind Benefactor
Super Member
Registered
Joined
Apr 5, 2011
Messages
6,239
Reaction score
592
Location
On the nickel
You still here, JS? :)

Drop us a line if you are. Be glad to see some weird west, or any west posted. Get yourself to 50 posts and come to the Western SYW.

All are welcome here. :)