Seasons Scribbles

Does anybody else get the urge to write something seasonal this time of year? Whether it’s a child’s story involving Santa Clause, or a Thriller set during the crisp white winters of Ole’ London Town, thousands of people feel compelled to write during this magical time. Now I’m not normally one to go all gooey and sentimental over national holidays, but this close to Christmas it’s hard not to. I love Christmas and I’m not ashamed to say it. My favourite bit is the smell of the roast wafting through into the living room while we watch something tacky on the telly, usually from Disney.

But when writing about the season’s holidays, whether it is Christmas, Yule, Hanukah etc... this time of year always brings about some of the most imaginative tales. Some of the most memorable fictions are based around Christmas. Look at Charles Dickens’ Christmas Carol. How many times has that been re-imagined? The cynics among us would say that the producers are trying to cash in on a great idea, and they’re probably right, but that doesn’t mean we like it any less.

There are so many stories to choose from.

 

‘How the Grinch Stole Christmas’ by Dr. Seuss
‘The Night before Christmas’ by Clement Clarke Moore
‘Polar Express’ by Chris van Allsburg
‘The Lion, the Witch and the Wardrobe’ by C.S.Lewis and

‘The Nutcracker’ by E.T.A Hoffmann are just a few of the sublime narratives developed specifically for this time of year.

I don’t know about anyone else, but I love writing about Christmas, just trying to convey my own personal feelings from the holidays onto paper is a joy. As with every Christmas, because it is a guilty pleasure of mine, I shall be joining Ebenezer Scrooge in his bedroom for a night of yuletide haunting. I look forward to it every year, but what is your favourite Christmas Book? What’s your favourite bit about Christmas, or Yule, or Hanukah? Let me know what you think.

Read, Follow, Comment and Enjoy a very Merry Christmas. M x

Worrisome Word Count

There a few different ways to measure the length of your novel as you write it, the most common way is word count. I know some authors who count the amount of pages, which is ridiculous considering the format changes when published. But word-count is what a lot of publishers rely on, and it can affect the final decision whether or not too publish.

‘Is it too long?’
‘Is it too short?

Etc...

Crime novels are usually shorter, where as fantasies tend to be longer. The main problem is, what is the ideal length for a novel? There is no straight answer.

If you are a first time author, publishers don’t really want to print a book longer than 110,000 words. Any longer than that and it could get costly. If you already have a good sales record behind you, then they may be ok with extending the word count, but only because they have evidence that your books will sell. Look at the Harry Potter series for example; The Philosopher's Stone was 76,944 words, but The Deathly Hallows was approximately 198,227, with Order of The Phoenix reaching over 250,000 words. When the success of the first books was apparent, the publisher knew they could make their money even with novels of a much larger size. 

The main worry is, that although you may want your book to be longer or shorter, don’t worry about it until you come to editing it. My first book was 110,000 at its first draft. By the time I finished editing, it was 95,000 words. A very decent size for anyone’s first time novel and still acceptable in length for most publishers. I have a novel however that I have not yet edited, and it is 65,000 words in length. I know there are to be quite a few changes, a little cut out and a lot added in, but I’m not thinking about it until I have finished writing my current one which is set to finish at 75,000 words. This is only the first draft and the content, I’m sure will change dramatically.

The point to this blog is to calm everyone down about the ‘word-count’ obsession. Just write the book the way you want to. The first draft is yours; the rest is to make it marketable, to make it ‘reader friendly’. Tell me what you think. Read, follow, comment and enjoy. M x

50 Must Reads

My bookmark is a thin piece of stainless steel, engraved with ’50 books to read before you die.’ I will list the books on here in the order they are listed, and see how many you’ve read. I am ashamed to say, that although I enjoy classic novels, I have only read about 5% of them. I won’t tell you which ones, you can have a guess. But see if you agree with the list, or if you have some books you would recommend?

 

THE LORD OF THE RINGS TRILOGY-           J.R.R.TOLKIEN
1984                                                    -              GEORGE ORWELL
PRIDE AND PREJUDICE                   -             JANE AUSTEN
THE GRAPES OF WRATH                -              JOHN STEINBECK
TO KILL A MOCKING BIRD              -              HARPER LEE
JANE EYRE                                           -              CHARLOTTE BRONTE
WUTHERING HEIGHTS                   -              EMILY BRONTE
A PASSAGE TO INDIA                     -              E.M.FORSTER
THE LORD OF THE FLIES                  -              WILLIAM GOLDING
HAMLET                                               -              WILLIAM SHAKESPEARE
A BEND IN THE RIVER                     -              V.S.NAIPAUL
THE GREAT GATSBY                         -              F. SCOTT FITZGERALD
THE CATCHER IN THE RYE              -              J.D.SALINGER
THE BELL JAR                                      -              SYLVIA PLATH
BRAVE NEW WORLD                       -              ALDOUS HUXLEY
DIARY OF ANNE FRANK                 -              ANNE FRANK
DON QUIXOTE                                   -              MIGUEL DE CERVANTES
THE BIBLE                                            -              VARIOUS
THE CANTERBURY TALES               -              GEOFFREY CHAUCER
ULYSSES                                               -              JAMES JOYCE
THE QUIET AMERICAN                   -              GRAHAM GREENE
BIRDSONG                                          -              SEBASTIAN FAULKS
MONEY                                             -              MARTIN AMIS
HARRY POTTER SERIES                    -              J.K.ROWLING
MOBY DICK                                         -              HERMAN MELVILLE
THE WIND IN THE WILLOWS        -              KENNETH GRAHAME
HIS DARK MATERIALS TRILOGY  -              PHILIP PULLMAN
ANNA KARENINA                             -              LEO TOLSTOY
ALICE’S ADVERNTURES IN WONDERLAND             -              LEWIS CARROLL
REBECCA                                              -              DAPHNE DU MAURIER
THE CURIOUS INCIDENT OF THE DOG IN THE NIGHT TIME              -              MARK HADDON
ON THE ROAD                                    -              JACK KEROUAC
HEART OF DARKNESS                     -              JOSEPH CONRAD
THE WAY WE LIVE NOW                -              ANTHONY TROLLOPE
THE OUTSIDER                                   -              ALBERT CAMUS
THE COLOUR PURPLE                     -              ALICE WALKER
LIFE OF PI                                            -              YANN MARTEL
FRANKENSTEIN                                 -              MARY SHELLEY
THE WAR OF THE WORLDS           -              H.G.WELLS
MEN WITHOUT WOMEN              -              ERNEST HEMINGWAY
GULLIVER’S TRAVELS                      -              JONATHAN SWIFT
A CHRISTMAS CAROL                     -              CHARLES DICKENS
HUCKLEBERRY FINN                        -              MARK TWAIN
ROBINSON CRUSOE                        -              DANIEL DEFOE
ONE FLEW OVER THE CUCKOO’S NEST  -  KEN KESEY
CATCH 22                                             -           JOSEPH HELLER
THE COUNT OF MONTE CRISTO -              ALEXANDRE DUMAS
MEMOIRS OF A GEISHA                  -              ARTHUR GOLDEN
THE DIVINE COMEDY                      -           ALIGHIERI DANTE
THE PICTURE OF DORIAN GRAY    -             OSCAR WILDE

So how many have you read? How many are you intending to read? Are there any surprises? Or possibly books you have read but thought, ‘there’s no way that should be in this list.’ Please remember that this is not the ‘top 50 books of all time’ but the ‘50 books to read before you die.’

These are books that demand your attention. It may be just a gimmicky bookmark that served me well, but I am going to start at the top and work my way down. Until I get to my favourite book of all time.
The picture of Dorian Gray.
But one thing that surprised me was the mention of the Bible. These are books you must read before you die, but the Bible is a religious text, so should it be on the list? I know there are going to be some people who will state unequivocally, ‘YES’, but in that case, should we not also include religious texts from other faiths in the list? That’s just my thought, what’s yours?

Read, follow, comment and enjoy. M x

Family Fiction

I wrote recently discussing hobbies and whether to include them in your novel. What about families? Obviously, most characters have families, and some stories require stronger family types than others. But have you ever written a novel where the characters or character’s families are based on your own? I know this is a dangerous concept, because what if someone from your own family decides to read your novel and recognises where you got that character type from? Will they be flattered that you’ve included them (to a degree) in your work, or would they be insulted that you see them in a way that is unfavourable to them?

E.G. imagine you have a sister who loves a particular movie star, or singer, and it’s all they talk about. And in your novel you talk about a girl who is obsessed with someone in particular, if you’re drawing your inspiration from that sister, isn’t it likewise that you may end basing some of the dialogue on what they say? Isn’t it obvious that they may think you are mocking them? It may upset her, obviously that’s not what you’re trying to do, but it may be the end result.

On the flipside though, what happens when you make up a fictional character, completely made-up, you haven’t based it on anyone because the character in your mind is unique, but someone you know, thinks you are basing it on them. You create a clown type character that is stupid and silly and clumsy and an idiot simply for the point of the story, when a friend of yours who you’ve asked to reads the story for feedback, gets upset because they think you are mocking them. What do you do? Do you rewrite the character because your friend is upset, or do you just keep it the way it is, because you know it isn’t based on anyone and your friend needs to accept that?

Thing is you can never satisfy everyone. Someone somewhere is going to connect with your creations, for good or worse, and if you start changing your novel because of that, then you are never going to be happy with it. Do what’s right for your novel, and if you do base a character on a real person, then good luck, or don’t tell anyone.

Read, follow, comment and enjoy. M x

Imaginative Interests

 

Do your characters have hobbies; interests that set them apart from other characters in fiction? Something weird and wonderful that endears them to us as quirky and eccentric? What about using Past-times as a way of describing a character’s personality? If you wanted to emphasize a boring old man, you could possibly make him a train spotter. Some wacky woman could try to contact the dead in their spare time. A precarious youth may have too many hobbies to mention because they cannot settle down on anything. Hobbies are difficult to perfect in a character, but mention it generally, in passing, and it gives the character depth and the reader an idea to who the character is.

Have you ever given a character your interests? If you enjoy archery, or bird watching, or even just shopping, do you give any of those traits deliberately to your character? My main concern for this is that we end up putting too much detail into the character’s hobby, making it quite dull for the reader. Fantastic, so you love aquariums, and so does your protagonist, but after you’ve described your ideal fish tank in detail, (including the colours of each fish and the wattage to the latest water pump,) how many readers would still be reading?

I am ashamed to say that it took me three attempts to read ’40,000 leagues under the sea’. This was due mainly to the page upon page of detailed descriptions of the deep sea dwelling creatures that appear for only a second, just to be described, before they disappear again. I know that authors are trying to give a realistic view of their character, or of the location, but how much detail is too much? I honestly felt, with the previously mentioned book, (as good as it was, because aside from this, it is still a good book.) I was reading an encyclopaedia of under-water occupants.

Many authors I meet give their characters interests that they are themselves interested in because it helps them connect with the character more. This little detail helps the author get enthusiastic about what they’re writing and allows a 50,000-100,000 word manuscript to be written with some ease. But tell me what you think.

Read, follow, comment and enjoy. M x

Impetuous Intentions

A day or two ago, I found myself writing my next novel quite happily. No real problems, I knew what murder was to be committed, how, when, why and by whom. What I didn’t know, was anything else. I had started writing a novel with no idea how it was to turn out. Worse than that, I hadn’t planned anything properly. Any regular reader of my blog knows that I am a fastidious planner, and write full life stories for each character no matter how small a part they play. I like to know the history of a location before I place my characters there.

Some may call me a control freak, and as far as writing my novels go, I may also agree, but how then did I write the prologue and first two chapters without a chapter plan? Without any clear idea how I was going to introduce the evidence the sleuth needs to solve the case? Without proper motives and alibis for each character. Without, in fact, a clear idea of what characters I would be creating? How does someone like me, who insists on loads of planning and research before even thinking about details of a project, neglect the very bare bones of novel writing?

I think, perhaps, that my enthusiasm for the new project got the better of me. It can happen, though not often. I got so excited about an idea I had, that I just went ahead and began to write it. Some people may be able to write like that and if they can then I envy them. I however must have a written and drawn plan of attack. Does that bind me to a rigid way of thinking? Do I tie my own hands by being so rigid? Or does my faithful method do me credit? What do you think?

Read, follow, comment and enjoy. M x

Written Repetition

One of the problems I’ve found with prolific authors is repetition. We’re all guilty of it, telling that joke more than once because it got a good reception, or cooking a meal exactly the same way as before because it tasted so good. When an author writes a book and it gets good praise, they try and recapture what it was that captivated the audience. Some authors write a sequel, and although good, the series never usually lives up to its predecessor. Other authors just continue writing stories in the hope that they will appeal to their fan-base.

We may be able to come up with one or two completely original novels, but with several hundred years of fictional printing, most ideas have been had and to keep coming up with something new is difficult. So what do we do then? Some authors repeat themselves, which is not what their audience wants. They take a novel that worked really well and just change character names and/or locations. A friend had recently told me that they have gone off a favourite author of theirs. They did mention the name, but I forget what it was. The author was medically trained and wrote thrillers to that effect. A disease would break out, there’d be an epidemic, a lesser known doctor would come up with a cure amidst falling in love with a beautiful heroine and all would be well. The characters names would change, as would the disease and the effects of the disease but the main staple of the story would be the same. I guess you could say that of most genres. Crime: There was a crime, the protagonist solves it. The end. Romance: Man and woman fall in love despite difficulty from (insert antagonist here) and they eventually live happily ever after.

So we all repeat ourselves, but to what degree? I strongly believe that there is no formula to a good novel, but a certain amount of repetition is sometimes necessary to ensure that we adhere to genres, or ideas that the audience base likes. What if there was a series of crime novels where the crimes were never solved, would the reader be disappointed? A romance where the hero and heroine end up hating each other? These things wouldn’t work, because they aren’t what the reader wants. We are authors because the audience enjoys our stories. That’s just my opinion though.

What do you think? Read, follow, comment and enjoy. M x

Novel Snob

When I talk about my favourite novels, I sometimes get called a literary snob. That’s all well and good, but a classic is a classic for a reason. I enjoy some of the old classics, not all, but most. Charles Dickens, Agatha Christie, Oscar Wilde, even some Jane Austen. Does this mean I am a literary snob? If that’s all I read, then possibly, yes. But it’s not all I read.

I have enjoyed novels from a wide range of authors. James Herbert’s Thrillers are always a favourite of mine. Stephanie Meyer provided some amusing distractions as did Charlaine Harris. Everybody has read some J.K Rowling in their life and they became great hits for a reason. I have read some more unknown authors such as Perry Moore and Bill Konigsberg with great surprise at how good their novels are. These are not known as classics, but are still enjoyable; I have spent many hours with books that are not well known and loved them from start to finish. But because my favourites lean more towards the classics than the more modern novels, does that make me a snob? Possibly still, yes.

But I don’t mind being a literary snob, if it means I can appreciate the wit of Oscar Wilde, the grittiness of Charles Dickens’ perfectly proportioned prose, the pretty romance of Jane Austen and the cleverly deceptive Agatha Christie. I am proud to call myself a literary snob, but why all of a sudden do we need to justify our favourite reading materials? We live our lives the way we want. We are told everyday to be an individual, yet are chastised for doing so. For me, reading fiction is an escape from the real world, so why do we need to excuse the personal, private little world in our imagination? Tell me what you think.

Read, follow, comment and enjoy. M x

Change of Perspective

I have spoken before about the use of narrative to tell a story. The differences between 1^st and 3^rd person narrations are too numerous to mention. But what about, if during a series you change the perspective as well as the narrative? Agatha Christie’s first novel, ‘The Mysterious Affair At Styles’ was a first person Narrative from Poirot’s faithful companion, Captain Hastings, then her second, ‘The Murder Of Roger Ackroyd’ was also a first person view, but from a one off character called Doctor Shepphard; the same narrative style but from two different perspectives. If we then look at, ‘Murder On The Orient Express’, it is written entirely from a 3^rd person view, throwing a completely different perspective into the mix. Because of this, it is difficult to find a formula to her work and each story is just as thrilling as the last.

 

Each author has their own favourite way of writing, but I think we are also guilty of experimenting with our own writing styles, in order to find one that not only suits us, but also the reader. The danger becomes that we may confuse the reader. What if they pick up a book expecting it to be similar to the one they read previously, only to find that we changed our style too much and the reader isn’t keen? It’s always a danger, it would be very rare cases where a writer’s style when they first start out is the best they could do, and any change would ruin it. But what if we have been writing a while; developed our own use of language that our audience enjoys, then try something new and our readers don’t like it? We won’t know if we don’t try.

 

I love trying new things. I spend most of my time writing in 1^st person but am now trying something in 3^rd. I have found it quite liberating, not limiting myself but allowing myself to test my knowledge and limits by adopting other methods. So don’t just change the perspective the reader reads from, or the author writes from. Change the perspective we have on our own writing, don’t build walls and say, ‘That’s my style’, Knock a few down and ask, ‘Will this work?’, What’s the worst that could happen?

 

Let me know what you think. Read, follow, comment and enjoy. M x

Books vs eBooks

I have heard the question many times from all sorts of people. All of whom want to know if buying an e-reader is worth the admittedly large initial pay-out. When anyone has asked me, they generally want to know an author’s perspective, but our perspective is just a varied as the views of the general public. We cannot say for definite that one is better than the other because the pros and cons are equally matched.

The eReader does have an initial payout equal to that of at least 10 books, (depending on what one you choose), but there are so many books out there, modern and classic, that are free to download. On kindle for example, there are:
Sir Arthur Conan Doyle’s – The Adventures of Sherlock Holmes.
Mike Wells’-Lust, Money, Murder series.
Oscar Wilde’s- The Importance Of Being Ernest.
L.T. Vargus’-Casting Shadows Everywhere.

So the cheaper price of books generally pays for the eReader itself. The space on a book shelf is dramatically decreased as you can hold hundreds of novels on something about the thickness of a children’s picture book. So you only need the one item when you take it on holiday. And how many books have dog ears, coffee ring stains and yellowed pages? They damage easily, the spine breaks and pages fall out or the cover can get torn and the pages wet. The eReader is far more durable than that, and if it damages, you can re-download any books from your eReader account at no extra cost.

 Before anyone accuses me of seeing only one side of the argument, what about books? Proper, hard copy books? Yes they are bulkier, but they’ve got something to hold onto whilst you read; something of substance you can feel in your fingers. If you’ve only got room for a few in your holiday luggage, then you have to be discerning in your reading habits, choosing carefully what you want to read, and therefore allowing you to think carefully about the kinds of books you enjoy. Yes, hard copy books can get damaged, you can dog ear the pages when you’ve lost your book mark; underline certain paragraphs you want to remember and bend the spine back in order to see the pages better. Its remembering when you read through for the second or third time the things you loved about it. And let’s not forget, electrical items break aswell. Ok so the eReader is more durable, but when it breaks, we’ve then got to fork out for a new one. And talking about memory, that’s one of the most important arguments against an eReader, is the smell. The olfactory sense is the most powerful trigger for memory. Reading that favourite old book for the thousandth time is still special, because that odour reawakens the wonderful memories we had in those past pages.

 So what do you think? I’m still undecided, I’ll try one way, then the other and see what I prefer, but that’s just it isn’t it? Preference. If we all like it the same way, we might as well have chips in our heads and download books automatically into our brains. Where’s the fun in that?

Read, follow, comment and enjoy. M x

Sequel or Series

Book one of my new series is finished, well apart from the editing bit, we’ll come to that in a couple of months. Now I turn my attention to the next novel, but there is a question I’ve never really asked myself. I knew I’d be writing a series, but is everything after the first story, a sequel, even if the series is already planned out? Hard to differentiate I know, unless there is a definition out there that separates the two, a definition I’ve not yet heard of.

Even though I’ve planned the series, there are many do’s and dont’s about writing a sequel, and I ignore all of them. Well, to be honest, I don’t really ignore the rules of sequential writing; I just don’t know them and don’t care. I’ve tried writing according to the unspoken rules of the literary world and in all honesty, I find it a bit too constricting. Doesn’t obeying the rules of conformity contradict the point of doing anything creative? When artists talk about the rules of perspective, do you think Picasso bothered to follow them? The famous saying, ‘rules were made to be broken’ isn’t necessarily true, but we can surely bend them to the limit and find out how far we can go?

So with book 1, we’ve set our stage. With book 2, we push the world to its edge and look over the carapace. By book 3, we’ve taken the step over. We are always trying new things, but that doesn’t mean not to try ones that others tried before. Just because it didn’t work for them, doesn’t mean it won’t work for you. Give it a go, and if it fails, either keep going until it works or try something else.

So many people are trying to copy a ‘proven’ formula for writing, but there’s no such thing. Tell me what you think. Read, follow, comment and enjoy. M x

Secret Pseudonyms

The reasons for pseudonyms are varied. Some like the anonymity, others like the security a pseudonym gives, especially if writing about something controversial. But what makes a pseudonym? Back in the day, when female writers were frowned upon, they used male names. But why would you use a Pseudonym and what would you choose? I know one author who used their ‘Porn name’, you know, when you take your first pets name and your mother’s maiden name. I would be called He-man Bolton. Yeah, I know.

But let’s look at some of the more professional Pseudonyms.

Dean Koontz      -              Aaron Wolfe
Anne Bronte      -              Acton Bell
Emily Bronte      -              Ellis Bell
Ruth Rendell      -              Barbara Vine
Stephen King     -              Richard Bachman

 As you can see, two of the Brontes used the same surname and the same initial of the first name. So you can see they still wanted to be associated with each other. I know there are rules within the actors union where you cannot have the same name as someone else within the union, hence why so many actors have stage names. But then again, some of them changed their names not because they had to, but because it sounded better. E.g.

Norma Jeane Mortenson             -              Marilyn Monroe

But sometimes, she didn’t want to be recognised at all, so used a secret pseudonym, Zelda Zonk, among others. So when do the pseudonyms stop? Would we invent a super secret pseudonym when the secret one is found out? We have to them to protect ourselves, we use them to clarify to the audience what genre or writing style to expect, we use them for any number of reasons, but one thought has occurred to me. Do we create a separate character that the author can be?

 

I know it sounds strange, but if we assume another name to write a book, can we assume another persona for that same reason? Can our alter-ego write things that we would never dare? But now we delve into the realm of the psychosis and I am definitely not qualified to go there.

 

 

Tell me what your thoughts are. Read, follow, comment and enjoy. M x

Almost The End

We are coming to the end of Nanowrimo and our novels will soon be done. Ok, so my current novel is a day or two away for completion of the first draft. Once I’ve finished that, my practice is to leave it for a couple of months and then go back and edit it with a fresh mind. During those couple of months, I would write the next novel. It’s how I leapfrog my work. Write novel 1, then write novel 2, then edit novel 1, then write novel 3, then edit novel 2, then write novel 4 etc...this keeps everything fresh in my head and allows me to add or remove bits as and when they crop up. This way I can keep tabs on where my writing is going.

But when should I leave time for novel ideas? Between writing and editing, should I leave a week and allow myself to acclimatize? Or should I carry on regardless? I know everyone has their own little routines, and leaving a week between work seems like such a long time to me. I know we all reward ourselves after we finish a novel. For me, it’s ‘Ben and Jerry’s Ice Cream’, for others, it’s a bit of time off from the typing.

Now, with the novel about to finish, it is tempting to either carry on the story, which can be seriously damaging, or rush to complete it. If you rush to finish it, which I think we’ve all done with our first novels, that’s where you begin to make mistakes. So rather than rush to the end, I’m taking a bit more time and giving myself a couple of extra days to make sure I get the ending right. The ending can be just as important as the beginning, especially if leading onto a sequel.

But when do we get time to prepare the manuscript for publishing? When do we do that bit? I do that during the editing phase of my work. Once I’m happy with how the novel sounds, then I edit the layout, and make sure it is to the publisher’s specifications.

What do you do? Do you have any tips for other budding authors out there? Let me know what you think. Read, follow, comment and enjoy. M x

First Lines

First lines are so important, they are the opening of your tale and must grab the reader’s attention from the moment they open the book. But what makes a great first line? It’s hard to pinpoint and I don’t think there is a formula you can use. Charles Dickens likes to use statements, something big and bold that tells the reader that this book is grand. ‘A Tale Of Two Cities’ started with:

“It was the best of times, it was the worst of times, it was the age of wisdom, it was the age of foolishness.”

If you don’t know what the book is about, you immediately want to find out what the author is talking about. The line continues in its contradictory narrative for a few lines, but the first is what hooks its readers. Agatha Christie’s first lines are, I consider, the best. She uses a well calculated, seemingly random, description from a scene that drags its readers focus exactly where it needs to be for the story. ‘Murder on the orient express’, for example:

“It was five o’clock on a Winters morning in Syria.”

Doesn’t tell you much, but you know where you are and you are now desperate to find out why you are in Syria at five o’clock in the morning at winter. I’m sure these first lines were not found immediately, but worked on over and over again in order to make them perfect for the story they were telling. I know that when I write a novel, I often re-write the first chapter, or prologue, from scratch, 2, 3 or maybe more times, until I am happy with it. The first line gets your readers’ imaginations exactly where you want them. Once their attention, their imagination and their thoughts are where they’re supposed to be, you can paint the tale around them. Sounds easy, but it’s really not. Painting the tale is no easy feat on its own, but without a good opening line, it’s almost impossible.

What do you think? Read, follow, comment and enjoy. M x

Mourning Books

Have you ever mourned a book? Not because you didn’t like it, but because you loved it? I know I have. Do you know what I mean? When you like a book, you finish it with a sense of ‘wow, that was good.’ But when you love a book, you don’t want it to end. That goes for writing and reading. If you loved writing a book so much, it’s possible that you just end up writing continuously so that you don’t finish it, and that changes the whole story, when it should have ended 20,000 words ago. When you’re reading, you can’t keep it going, unless you only read a little bit a day; but that’s not possible for me, because when I find a book I love, I cannot put it down.

So your favourite book has come to an end, and you mourn it, because it has ended and you can never read that book with fresh eyes ever again. You can leave it for months or years before reading it again, because there will always be things you’ve forgotten, but what about for the writer? I know Agatha Christie loved writing some of her books. Crooked House was one of her favourites because of the fun mixture of characters, she was sad when she finished writing it, but she did finish and now we all get to enjoy it.

I talk about mourning books like it’s something that everyone does, but for all I know, I could be alone in this phenomenon. Maybe everyone else loves it when a fantastic book comes to an end and they see it with a head full of wonder, as opposed to my mind full of dread that I’ll never read something that good again. Maybe I’m just being pessimistic, or maybe some call it realistic. One person even called it romantic, to mourn a good book because you loved it so much and now its ended. What do you think?

Read, follow, comment and enjoy. M x

Happy Holidays

As we approach the holiday season, I am reminded of the holidays we’ve left behind us; namely the summer holidays. When we (writers, authors etc...) go on holiday somewhere with sun, sea and sand, do we relax as much as we should or not? I know what I’m like, I’m always coming up with stories that could be based in these foreign climes; taking notes about language, culture and other foreign stuff that I wouldn’t have thought about sitting at my desk at home. I don’t mean to presume that all people holiday in exotic locations, maybe you like to holiday at a damp train-spotting campsite. But while there, do you switch off, or like me do you keep your brain ticking over with novel ideas?

If I’m correct, then when do we actually get a holiday? When do we get time off? It’s not like working for a company where one would receive paid holidays, time off comes at a cost. We earn from our writing, if we stop writing, even for a week, then we lose part of our earnings. I don’t mean that we have to be typing the story out, I’m including just thinking about the story in this situation. All the planning, the research and the editing are part of what we do, to truly have a holiday, we must refrain from doing any of it.

If any of you are reading this that are not writers, then you might think that switching off completely is easy, but I’m sure I speak for most professional writers when I say we can’t switch off. It’s what we talk about most of the time and think about all of the time. So going back to the original question, when do we writers get a holiday? I’m sure there are those of you out there who can manage it, and if that’s true then please let me know your secret, I would love a holiday where I don’t see the scenery and write down its effects so to accurately describe it in my next novel.

Let me know what you think. Read, follow, comment and enjoy. M x

Food for Fiction

I hear many people describe certain foods as the food for the gods, or brain food. The diets of writers are as varied as the writers themselves. Different things work well for different people. Maybe when you smell certain aromas it produces an imaginative effect that allows you to create more easily? Maybe when your body craves a kind of vegetable, and you provide it, you can concentrate more on the subject? There’re all sorts of things that diet can have an effect on, why can’t writing be one of them as well?

I find that if I eat a lot of stodgy food, my mind and body become very slow and sleepy. Pork pies, steak and kidney pud, scotch eggs, I love ‘em all. But I try not to eat them while I am writing as I find it limits my capacity to concentrate. Coffee is a hard one for lots of people, as the cliché is always a caffeine fuelled writer pulling their hair out. But the cliché does have some basis in truth; we do this more than any artist or musician. But I have to start the day with 1 or 2 cups of coffee, after that its decaf all the way. I find it’s the smell of coffee that has a stimulating effect and not the caffeine.

I eat as much fruit and veg throughout the day as I can, because my mind is clearer and I can write with greater ease than if I pump myself full of sugary snacks. On the flipside though, if I’m on a deadline and have to work into the night, chocolate works wonders. The sugar keeps the synapses firing but not for prolonged periods of time like caffeine does. You then go into a sort of sugar coma and have to stop what you’re doing because your brain just can’t function properly, by which point you eat more chocolate.

Ok, I may just sound like I am paid by Cadburys to advertise, but honestly I’m not. I’m only promoting chocolate for its medicinal properties ;-). I have heard some people say that macaroni cheese is great for writers and others say that peppermint tea is superb for concentration, but you are never going to know if you don’t try it. See what works for you, and don’t be afraid to try new things.

Let me know what you think. Read, follow, comment and enjoy. M x

Fashionable Fiction

One thing I have noticed is the literary bandwagon. Do you know what I mean? I mean that when an author does very well and their books fly off the shelves (which we all hope and pray will happen to our own novels) everybody seems to want to read that kind of book. And that’s all you see people on the bus or train reading. Anne Rice’s Vampire Chronicles did very well after  ‘Interview With The Vampire’ came out at the cinema, and then again after the release of  ‘The Vampire Lestat’. For a while everybody at the staff canteen were reading books with ‘Anne Rice’ emblazoned upon the front cover.

Then it was ‘Harry Potter’, then ‘Twilight’ and all sorts of others in between. Quick question though, do people read the books because Hollywood decided it’s good enough to turn into a movie, or does Hollywood only make movies out of the books that we consider good enough to read? Which comes first, the chicken or the egg? The parasite or host? The book or the movie? I try to read a story before I watch it on the big screen, just so I can get an idea of the tale from the author’s perspective before the director rips it apart to make it more movie friendly.

Not only do these books do very well from movie exposure, but tales from the same genre also get an increase in sales. Look at ‘Twilight’, Stephanie Meyer’s title has hit box office records, but other stories involving vampires and humans falling in love have also done very well from it. ‘The Vampire Diaries’ is one example of this. Before anyone starts shouting at me, I know ‘The Vampire Diaries’ was written first, but it doesn’t detract from the fact that the novels (although good on their own) did well from the other vampire movies. The same can be said for the fantasy genre when the ‘Harry Potter’ and ‘Lord Of The Rings’ films came out, other magical novels with wizards and dragons cashed in on the success.

My point is, are fiction genres fashionable? Are some them in one season and out the next? I always thought that genre was personal taste, but when you look at the reading habits of individuals against the exposure of massive movie corporations, the similarities speak for themselves.

What do you think? Read, follow, comment and enjoy. M x

Blagging Blog

 

So writing a blog isn’t the easiest thing to do. Every day, or week, or month depending on how often you update it, you must find something to write about. If you’re writing a blog about a specific subject, like I do, (writing, in case you didn’t guess) then the subject matter can be very limited. Most of my blogs have deliberately been about writing novels, because that is what I enjoy doing, but today I am briefly blogging, about blogging.

Some people use their blog as a diary; others update it like statuses from a social networking site. I just write about writing, and I never plan what I’m gonna say. I may think about it for a moment and wonder,

“Should I blog about that?”

But it is never orchestrated, and I very rarely edit. I leave the professionalism to my novel writing, and the blogging is my chatty way to impart wisdom/say stupid stuff. I love blogging; it means I can leave the spell check and grammar check alone and just let go. It is very liberating to write without too much care about whether a publisher is gonna like it or not. No editors or proof readers, and the only critics are you guys. If you don’t like it, you read something else. Simple! It’s a fantastic way to say what you want, when you want and how you want, but what if you become a professional blogger?

If you somehow make money out of blogging on a regular basis because a lot of people read your blogs, do you start to pander to your audience? Do you change your writing style to suit them? Do you start using spelling and grammar checks? Do you lose the free form flow of your narrative and therefore your early audience who enjoyed your individual way of expressing yourself? I’m not sure, but I hope I don’t fall into that trap. If people want to read my writing, (that in itself would be awesome) when it is polished and perfected, then they can read my novels. If they want to read my work when its raw, rough and bashed out on the keyboard in a matter of moments, then they can read my blog. But I don’t expect the two to be similar, and I hope my readers don’t either, otherwise they could be very disappointed.

What do you think? Read, follow, comment and enjoy. M x

Family Fiction

My brother has been writing a book for almost ten years now, and is currently in the process of editing it. He has a full time job elsewhere, a part-time social life and a very active interest in computer games, (Sound familiar?). He wants me to read through his work once he has completed it. He has a belief that the dialogue in his manuscript is superb, which is possibly true, but no-one has read it yet so it cannot be confirmed. What sounds great in our heads isn’t always the case when on paper. The main problem being that we understand what we want the dialogue to mean, so know how it is supposed to sound, but will other people know what you are trying to say?

One of the hardest things for an un-published author is getting people to read their novel. Obviously the first people who read their book will be friends and family, and friends rarely ever want to hurt someone’s feelings. So first-time, un-published authors think their work is good enough to send to agents and publishers, when in fact it still needs work. Once rejected a few times from said agents/publishers they tend to put the book in a draw and forget about it, so the kindest thing would be to give honest, constructive criticisms. Then we hit another problem, authors are as sensitive about their manuscripts as artists are about their art. That is who we are, artists that are never satisfied with their own work. So we keep trying. I’m sure all authors will say that even when their book is published, there are one or two pieces they would like to change, but that is personal criticism.

When we are writing, we have little time for reading, and no time for anything else, let alone judging somebody else’s work, especially when criticism is rarely appreciated. So what can we do? When approached by a member of the public who asks if we can read their work, do we? We should, as I believe all up and coming authors should be encouraged. But do we have the time, and will it be worth it? That sounds bad I know, but what people want is for us to read the book they’ve spent so much time and effort on and to tell them it is fantastic and doesn’t need to change. That is never the case. I know that when I’ve finished reading my brother’s book, he will sit and listen to any constructive criticism I give, but he won’t like it. Are we too sensitive about our work? Do we need to listen more? Or should we listen to our instincts? What do you think?

Read, follow, comment and enjoy. M x

Fan Fiction

Fan Fiction

Fan fiction is usually young people writing stories about their favourite TV shows and computer games. Now I have mentioned in the past that I am not keen on novels based on TV and games, but fan fiction is a whole different story. When professional writers try to change their style to suit a storyline already written, it can come across as clumsy. But when an inexperienced writer, or young writer, tries their hand a creating stories about their favourite things, the most amazing tales can come out. Ok, so they’re not the polished gems you’d pick up in a book store; the grammar is awful and spelling is atrocious, but look beyond that and you’ll find wonderful imaginations spurned into working by the shows they watch and games they play.

These authors of tomorrow are starting out in the wonderful world of writing, and nothing can stop them. They will inherit the empire we leave behind and all we can do is help them. If the younger generation only wants to write about one particular show, then encourage it. As long as the story they write is original, they will use their imaginations and from that will spring whole worlds that we of the “slightly more experienced” generation could never have thought of.

I called us “Slightly more experienced” as I don’t believe there could ever possibly be a fully experienced writer, and there definitely is no such thing as an expert writer. But as we continue to concentrate on our craft, the young ones will be learning to appreciate it, through their own interests, and I can’t help but look forward to what this new batch of writers will produce and how much they could teach us. This is an exciting world where anything can happen, with only pen and paper.

Everywhere, I see people belittle the works of fan-fiction as not real fiction, but that is nonsense as any writer worth his/her salt would tell you. Anything written from the imagination is a work of fiction, even if facts are twisted to tell a story, its fiction. Even if the world ended because a purple unicorn rode a rainbow to the milky-way and farted the earth into darkness, that’s still fiction; and it would take a massive imagination to come up with it. Don’t mock fan-fiction, it inspires the novelists of tomorrow.

Tell me what you think. Read, follow, comment and enjoy. M x

Writing What I Want

Writing What I Want

So now I can to write about anything I want, but what do I want to write about? That is one of the hardest questions a writer asks themselves. It’s easy to say that you write about what you’re interested in, but how do you go about writing it if you’ve never done it before? Maybe you are a sci-fi fan, but when you try writing sci-fi, you find a lot of it doesn’t make sense. Same with fantasy, it doesn’t ring true somehow. Maybe you don’t know how to plan a murder, or to write someone’s biography. Perhaps you want to write non-fiction on a specific subject, but don’t know what points to emphasize.

Here’s what you do, get the imagination going and write it anyway. So what if sci-fi doesn’t make sense, does it have to? Fantasy doesn’t ring true, because it is fantasy, not reality. If you want to write about a specific subject and don’t know how to go about it, or what points to emphasize, write it anyway. You’ll make the points you want to make. It’s your book, it’s your work, it’s your imagination.

If you want to know about factual elements to add to your book, then do some research, but don’t be bogged down by facts; they can detract from the story.

Too much detail = not enough tale.

Anyone heard that before? I know readers who like their novels to be filled with factual content, but not at the cost of the story. Let yourself go when you write, because until it’s published, it’s only you who’s going to be reading it, so you don’t have to worry about embarrassing yourself. Writing what you want to write is a very freeing experience so give it a go. If it’s not for you, then stop. Simple, what have you lost? Nothing, so pick up a pen and see what happens. Let me know what you think.

Read, follow, comment and enjoy. M x

Writing Stamina

Writing Stamina

Have you ever heard of writing stamina? I hadn’t until somebody mentioned it to me the other day. They asked, “How do you maintain your stamina?” I had no idea what they meant, but when they explained that if we don’t continue writing, then we fall out of step and find it difficult to ‘get back into it’ as it were. Finding the motivation for writing when we haven’t got the stamina is very difficult. I write every day except on weekends, sometimes my novel, sometimes my blog, but often it’s both. This is why I haven’t noticed a lag in my performance. But if I was to leave my work for more than a couple of days, I would probably find it difficult to regain my stamina.

I asked this person, a successful author of some years, what they did to maintain writing stamina, and their answer was simple.

KEEP WRITING!!

But what if we can’t think of something to write? That’s was my worry, but he had an answer for that too. Don’t worry if you have nothing to write about, write about having nothing to write about. Doesn’t matter if you’re writing a novel, a script, a poem, a diary or a letter to yourself, just write something, because once you lose the stamina, the ‘get up and go’, it is very hard to get back. This made sense, but I’d never thought about it before, and that got me thinking. If I had never thought about the stamina, it would probably have crept up and got hold of me at some point in my career without my realizing it. What else was out there that authors can suffer from, or problems they can come across that I don’t know about? If you know of any, please let me know.

One other worry I had was, if this already happened to someone, what’s the best way to get their stamina back? His answer was the same as before, just write and keep writing. Start off with some small stuff until you are able to write the way you used to and you shouldn’t have any problems after that.

Let me know what you think. Read, follow, comment and enjoy. M x

A Writer's Life

A Writer’s Life

Any writer will tell you that the biggest sacrifice we make is to our lives. I’m not talking about life and death or anything like that; I mean our family life, our social life and our love life. Today is my Godson’s 2^nd birthday, and I took a fleeting moment out of my working day to wish him a happy birthday and give him his present. It’s only when I saw him, I realize exactly how much the boy has grown, and how long it’s been since I saw him last, which was a couple of weeks ago. Even then it was only a fleeting ‘Hello’ at the local supermarket during the brief time I’m away from my typing to gain sustenance (A growing boy can shoot up fast in only a couple of weeks).

So many relationships end due to writing. When someone takes up writing as a career or even as a hobby, there is very little room for anything else, and yet we try. The problem is that the others in our lives, especially the ones who were there before the writing took hold, suffer for it. If you have a successful relationship with your friends, family and significant other, then you have a circle of very understanding people around you. This is very rarely the case, as I have spoken to many authors on this subject, and a lot of them say they are no-longer with the person they were with when they started writing. Friends become neglected and though we still talk and try to see each other when we can, it is not always possible, days become weeks and then months etc...

These are the sacrifices we make when we write; this isn’t just a hobby, it becomes an obsession. We have to continue our writing, it is our work and it is hard work, but we love it. That is why we make these sacrifices, because it is something we must do. Do you guys agree, or do you think that writing comes last and should only be pursued in between seeing friends and family? Let me know below.

Read, follow, comment and enjoy. M x

Depressing Dialogue

Depressing Dialogue

I’ve just finished writing an essential part of the story where the dialogue is deliberately depressing. (It is a murder mystery, after all.) The only problem with writing these chapters is that I find it gets me down by the time I’ve finished it. Is that normal for authors? To find that you are so into the story you’re writing, that you feel what they feel? Or maybe it’s just the context of the text, so to speak? The chapter I just finished included the sleuth speaking to the grieving mother of 2 dead children. This was not going to be a happy conversation. But was it the dialogue that depressed me, or the situation? Or maybe I’m just being a bit too sensitive about my own writing?

When it comes to reading, I enjoy stories that are entertaining, and I personally don’t find depressing novels entertaining. I know everyone is different, and that some may find this kind of literature enjoyable, but I don’t. These downer parts of your story are essential for the tale and must be included, even if you don’t enjoy writing them, because you are writing for the readers’ enjoyment, and it is they who must be entertained. But is there a way to write these necessary evils into a book without it bringing you down with it? If not, and all good authors feel what their characters feel, then how do you pick yourself up again from this slump?

As I’m writing this blog, I’m reminded of a novel I read some years ago called ‘Disco Bloodbath’ by James St James. When only the bare bones of this story are examined, you can see it is an incredibly depressing tale; it’s all about drug taking teens taking overdoses and killing each other. But the way the author has broached the subject and carefully used language, makes reading this twisted tale of depravity an enjoyable experience.

So no easy task, but it is possible to read a depressing tale and still enjoy it, so can we write it and still enjoy it? What do you think?

Read, follow, comment and enjoy. M x

A Novel Game

A Novel Game

There are many types of fiction out there for all to enjoy. The newest of the genres, I think, is Computer Game fiction. Is it a good idea to turn a game into a novel? I know there are many examples of this, one of which is the Assassins Creed series. Where all five possibly six games have been converted into the world of words. Is this just a chance for the games production companies to cash in on their fan-base or do the fans genuinely love to read about a story they’ve already played and completed, therefore knowing the story anyway? I know with films, everyone says that there’s more story and more detail in the book but is it the same case for a game? A feature length film goes on for approximately two hours, where as a computer game can take an enormous amount of time. My brother is playing a game at the moment and has spent over 100 hours playing it. Could you get 100 hours of game-play into a novel or are you cutting out some of the story? If you’re playing for over 100 hours, could the extra stuff all be rather superfluous?

But on the flipside what about the books that were turned into games? Naturally the first that springs to mind is Lord of the Rings. The only problem there is that the books were turned into films, and the games are based on the films and not the books, so it’s not a good example. But still, if a fan enjoyed the novel enough to play the game, surely it should work the other way around? If you’ve already read the book, then you already know what’s going to happen. The difference is that you are the one making it happen. Maybe that’s the fascination with turning games into books? Maybe people want to read about the characters and how they interact without a player guiding them?

I’m not sure about the whole thing. I’ve only read one or two of these books and personally they’re not for me. What does everyone else think? Let me know. Read, follow, comment and enjoy. M x