Monday 23 December 2013

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

Tuesday 17 December 2013

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

Monday 16 December 2013

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

Friday 13 December 2013

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

Thursday 12 December 2013

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

Wednesday 11 December 2013

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

Tuesday 10 December 2013

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

Monday 9 December 2013

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

Tuesday 3 December 2013

Change of Perspective


I have spoken before about the use of narrative to tell a story. The differences between 1st and 3rd 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 3rd 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 1st person but am now trying something in 3rd. 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

Monday 2 December 2013

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