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About the journey of writing and what I'm learning along the way.
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I’ve received a great rejection letter, for Marauders, from a senior editor at a well known publishing house. How can a rejection letter be ‘great’ you ask, surely only an acceptance is great? Actually, this one was pure gold and I went off to celebrate – let me explain:
This was a personalised letter stating she had read and enjoyed the sample chapters – this is absolute proof my submission made it out of the slush pile. And if I can get out of one slush pile I can get out of others. This puts Marauders in the top 10% of submissions – confirmation I’m doing something right and not completely wasting my time.
Amazingly, this editor took time out from her busy schedule to write a short critique of my sample chapters: what she thought was good and what she thought needed improving. The whole letter was only a few short paragraphs, but how often have you longed for feedback from a professional editor, and a senior one at that? She even took time to read this blog.
What the editor suggested for improvement I had already half suspected before I sent out the submissions, which is great, because it confirms my gut instinct was right and gives me a focus for the next edit/re-write. In this lonely writing business it is so easy to get led astray by all the hype and distrust your own instincts. Now I know my story telling instincts were right all along I will listen to them more intently.
Now I’m off to revisit my sample chapters and edit, edit, edit.
Why do we love Rowling? It’s easy: loveable characters and fun. These books are such fun to read.
I have spent the last couple of weeks analysing Rowlings books to find out what makes them tick. Lets take bk4 as an example:
Storylines: The main plot appeals to all ages. Good versus evil with a sufficiently large consequence of failure and therefore a satisfying payoff at the end. The main plot has a universal appeal to children and adults alike. There are, though, other storylines, some of which have very little to do with the main plot (e.g. Hermione’s SPEW campaign and who’s going with whom to the Yule ball). Both of these could have been cut to concentrate readers on the mail plot, but these storeylines are particularly aimed at children and provide most of the fun elements of her world, and the laughs. She intertwines these storyline expertly, giving us tension, conflict, and fun on every page.
Characters: Rowling’s ability to present character and characterisation is brilliant. Nothing unusual about writers creating great characters, except that everything and everyone is slightly exaggerated. With the exception of the three main characters, everyone is a caricature to a greater or lesser extent. The eccentric wizarding world she has created lends itself to caricatures, and therefore fun. The interplay between the three main characters and the extent to which she brings them to life and makes you care about them is dazzling – this is where her main skill lies.
Writing: I find the HP books difficult to read aloud. Rowling's sentences are often long and rambling, and often run on, but she gets away with it. There are several reason why she makes it work: Her rambling style matches the eccentric nature of the wizarding world; she knows when and how to crank up the pace; she uses the rambling sentences to convey the fun, the laughs, and the eccentricities of the wizarding world. They are in essence in character with the setting. But above all, Rowling has one writing attribute that is quite rare: comic timing. She can turn on the fun and the laughs without becoming cynical. Whatever the deficiencies of Rowling's writing style, readers either don’t notice or are prepared to forgive her because the read is just such fun.
Book 7: This one is different. Because she no longer has the setting of Hogwarts to fall back on, her available child-centric storylines are limited. This is, in essence, a chase story, whereas all the previous stories have been puzzles/mysteries. In consequence, she has had to throw in a lot more action to keep the plot moving and keep the reader’s interest. The laughs in bk7 come mainly from the interaction between the characters, but if we had not learned to love these characters in the previous books could she have pulled it off? Interestingly, there are few laughs associated with new characters.
So, is JK a genius? No. What she is, is a good writer who has the gift of comic timing, a flare for creating memorable characters, and an idea that allows her to draw on her strengths (which as far as I’m concerned is the holy grail of fiction writing). The rest is shear hard work.
Why do we love Rowling? It’s easy: loveable characters and fun. These books are such fun to read.
I have spent the last couple of weeks analysing Rowlings books to find out what makes them tick. Lets take bk4 as an example:
Storylines: The main plot appeals to all ages. Good versus evil with a sufficiently large consequence of failure and therefore a satisfying payoff at the end. The main plot has a universal appeal to children and adults alike. There are, though, other storylines, some of which have very little to do with the main plot (e.g. Hermione’s SPEW campaign and who’s going with whom to the Yule ball). Both of these could have been cut to concentrate readers on the mail plot, but these storeylines are particularly aimed at children and provide most of the fun elements of her world, and the laughs. She intertwines these storyline expertly, giving us tension, conflict, and fun on every page.
Characters: Rowling’s ability to present character and characterisation is brilliant. Nothing unusual about writers creating great characters, except that everything and everyone is slightly exaggerated. With the exception of the three main characters, everyone is a caricature to a greater or lesser extent. The eccentric wizarding world she has created lends itself to caricatures, and therefore fun. The interplay between the three main characters and the extent to which she brings them to life and makes you care about them is dazzling – this is where her main skill lies.
Writing: I find the HP books difficult to read aloud. Rowling's sentences are often long and rambling, and often run on, but she gets away with it. There are several reason why she makes it work: Her rambling style matches the eccentric nature of the wizarding world; she knows when and how to crank up the pace; she uses the rambling sentences to convey the fun, the laughs, and the eccentricities of the wizarding world. They are in essence in character with the setting. But above all, Rowling has one writing attribute that is quite rare: comic timing. She can turn on the fun and the laughs without becoming cynical. Whatever the deficiencies of Rowling's writing style, readers either don’t notice or are prepared to forgive her because the read is just such fun.
Book 7: This one is different. Because she no longer has the setting of Hogwarts to fall back on, her available child-centric storylines are limited. This is, in essence, a chase story, whereas all the previous stories have been puzzles/mysteries. In consequence, she has had to throw in a lot more action to keep the plot moving and keep the reader’s interest. The laughs in bk7 come mainly from the interaction between the characters, but if we had not learned to love these characters in the previous books could she have pulled it off? Interestingly, there are few laughs associated with new characters.
So, is JK a genius? No. What she is, is a good writer who has the gift of comic timing, a flare for creating memorable characters, and an idea that allows her to draw on her strengths (which as far as I’m concerned is the holy grail of fiction writing). The rest is shear hard work.
After several year of researching how to write, how to write better, then how to get published, I have come to the conclusion that there is a phenomenal amount of crap written about writing.
There’s a huge industry out there to help you write and get published, but there’s an even bigger one just waiting in make money out of you because they can. Writing is full of wannabe’s and that means it’s also full of sharks preying on innocent people’s dreams and desires. A lot of the stuff that is written about writing is either virtually useless, regurgitated from somewhere else or just out to make money from you.
If you are a beginner here’s a bit of sage advice (of course who am I to give you advice – I’m not even a published author yet):
If they have published only one book they are not yet successful. Many authors seem to publish just one book before setting themselves up as a teacher of writing. Check out how many books someone has actually had published as before you pay t have your work assessed by them – a surprising number have published less than three, often only one. I suppose that teaching writing is a more reliable income than actually writing for a living – their need to make money out of you is greater then your need to receive their help. Only when this is no longer true is it time to pay for advice.
You don’t need a shelf full of books about how to write. One good book on writing, one on plot development/characterisation, one on grammar (I recommend elements of style) and one on punctuation. That is all you need. Wait until you know where your writing is weak before purchasing any more, then target those weak spots.
You don’t need expensive computers or writing/editing programs to get started. You can pick up a really cheap laptop off e-bay (I’ve had two for less than £200 each), or you can use pen and paper – many writers still swear by this method for their first draft.
The same goes for courses and conferences – write your first full draft before seeking assistance, and then only sparingly.
Writing is a lonely hobby, but you don’t have to do it alone. There are plenty of groups on the internet where you can post your work and get feedback from other writers. Try out a few and see what suits you best, and remember, as you writing develops you may need a different kind of feedback so keep shopping around.
If you can find a face-to-face writers group in your area so much the better. Go along, make friends, share your writing. The hardest thing of all, though, is finding a group or buddy who will give you honest, constructive, and sometimes painful feedback – if you find them, stick to them like glue.
Above everything else, don’t let the books, magazines, blogs, websites or groups, distract you from writing as often as you can.
In my search for inspiration to generate more conflict, I came across
this article by James Bonnett. I went off to analyse my antagonists. This is the result:
The threat/source of the conflict – The Centaph
The complications and resistance – Lord Dracon, working through Halival Tarak and
Professor Hertzegovny.
Higher self/protector – the Mage, who equips Mervyn for success.
Once I had sorted this out, the larger picture started to make more sense and I could see how this story fits into the setting I created in ‘Marauders’. I decided the Centaph needed a character for us to focus on and for Lord Dracon to interact with. So I created Bal-Zuk-Mangok. I was then able to write the prologue for the story, which is the only place that Lord Dracon and Bal-Zuk-Mangok feature – sitting over everything like Greek gods. Later in the series they will become more personally involved in the stories, as will the Mage, but for now they are just pulling the strings and observing.
I then re-wrote sections of the brief to show how Mervyn is covertly equipped to access the Bourne by the Mage. I also started to increase the conflict with Prof. H., Aurora and Loren, though, I realised Aurora would never willingly work against her uncle with the Centaph threat so close so there are limits to how far she will go in acting against Mervyn.
Still trying to figure out how to seduce Loren into an alience with Prof. H. and turn her against Mervyn. Also trying to work out the true nature of the Bourne itself. This has taken an unexpected turn as I’ve had some great ideas, but they do complicate the story somewhat. Essentially, I’ve realised the Bourne is a puzzle for the Misfits to solve rather than just a monster, though I still plan for it to turn into a monster in the end. For the moment I’m just going to keep ploughing through the scene brief and see what turns up, then I’ll backtrack, analyse, consolidate, and re-write. Back to the scene brief then.
The scene brief pre-draft technique is working really well. More accurately, the story for ‘Ark of Knowledge’ is not working, but this is readily apparent through the scene brief. I’ve filled in most of the scenes for the first third and last third of the story. I currently have 40 closely written pages of scene notes. The brief gives me the freedom to introduce great ideas and develop characters, but is spares enough to allow me to easily backfill plot points and clearly see how the story is developing.
The middle scenes, however, are causing a lot of headaches. The route of the problem is that the main villain, the enigmatic Professor Hertzegovny, is neither enigmatic nor villainous. In fact, she is being remarkably co-operative at the moment. What I need is more conflict: the scene brief is far too sparse on conflict. I haven’t yet reached the conflict with Loren, what I need at this stage is more conflict from Aurora and Prof. H. or someone else. Ian McEwan, in his recent novel Beaches, manages to get conflict into every page. I doubt if I can achieve anything like that, but I should at least manage some action and some conflict in each scene.
So, do I introduce a new villain, beef up Prof. H. or beef up some other character, like Rufus Dracon? Can I have both Mervyn and Dracon running about a mystery spaceship at the same time? Somehow I doubt if that would work, unless he is in league with Prof. H. Time to analyse the scene brief again.
After several year of researching how to write, how to write better, then how to get published, I have come to the conclusion that there is a phenomenal amount of crap written about writing.
There’s a huge industry out there to help you write and get published, but there’s an even bigger one just waiting in make money out of you because they can. Writing is full of wannabe’s and that means it’s also full of sharks preying on innocent people’s dreams and desires. A lot of the stuff that is written about writing is either virtually useless, regurgitated from somewhere else or just out to make money from you.
If you are a beginner here’s a bit of sage advice (of course who am I to give you advice – I’m not even a published author yet):
If they have published only one book they are not yet successful. Many authors seem to publish just one book before setting themselves up as a teacher of writing. Check out how many books someone has actually had published as before you pay t have your work assessed by them – a surprising number have published less than three, often only one. I suppose that teaching writing is a more reliable income than actually writing for a living – their need to make money out of you is greater then your need to receive their help. Only when this is no longer true is it time to pay for advice.
You don’t need a shelf full of books about how to write. One good book on writing, one on plot development/characterisation, one on grammar (I recommend elements of style) and one on punctuation. That is all you need. Wait until you know where your writing is weak before purchasing any more, then target those weak spots.
You don’t need expensive computers or writing/editing programs to get started. You can pick up a really cheap laptop off e-bay (I’ve had two for less than £200 each), or you can use pen and paper – many writers still swear by this method for their first draft.
The same goes for courses and conferences – write your first full draft before seeking assistance, and then only sparingly.
Writing is a lonely hobby, but you don’t have to do it alone. There are plenty of groups on the internet where you can post your work and get feedback from other writers. Try out a few and see what suits you best, and remember, as you writing develops you may need a different kind of feedback so keep shopping around.
If you can find a face-to-face writers group in your area so much the better. Go along, make friends, share your writing. The hardest thing of all, though, is finding a group or buddy who will give you honest, constructive, and sometimes painful feedback – if you find them, stick to them like glue.
Above everything else, don’t let the books, magazines, blogs, websites or groups, distract you from writing as often as you can.
The scene brief pre-draft technique is working really well. More accurately, the story for ‘Ark of Knowledge’ is not working, but this is readily apparent through the scene brief. I’ve filled in most of the scenes for the first third and last third of the story. I currently have 40 closely written pages of scene notes. The brief gives me the freedom to introduce great ideas and develop characters, but is spares enough to allow me to easily backfill plot points and clearly see how the story is developing.
The middle scenes, however, are causing a lot of headaches. The route of the problem is that the main villain, the enigmatic Professor Hertzegovny, is neither enigmatic nor villainous. In fact, she is being remarkably co-operative at the moment. What I need is more conflict: the scene brief is far too sparse on conflict. I haven’t yet reached the conflict with Loren, what I need at this stage is more conflict from Aurora and Prof. H. or someone else. Ian McEwan, in his recent novel Beaches, manages to get conflict into every page. I doubt if I can achieve anything like that, but I should at least manage some action and some conflict in each scene.
So, do I introduce a new villain, beef up Prof. H. or beef up some other character, like Rufus Dracon? Can I have both Mervyn and Dracon running about a mystery spaceship at the same time? Somehow I doubt if that would work, unless he is in league with Prof. H. Time to analyse the scene brief again.
In my search for inspiration to generate more conflict, I came across
this article by James Bonnett. I went off to analyse my antagonists. This is the result:
The threat/source of the conflict – The Centaph
The complications and resistance – Lord Dracon, working through Halival Tarak and
Professor Hertzegovny.
Higher self/protector – the Mage, who equips Mervyn for success.
Once I had sorted this out, the larger picture started to make more sense and I could see how this story fits into the setting I created in ‘Marauders’. I decided the Centaph needed a character for us to focus on and for Lord Dracon to interact with. So I created Bal-Zuk-Mangok. I was then able to write the prologue for the story, which is the only place that Lord Dracon and Bal-Zuk-Mangok feature – sitting over everything like Greek gods. Later in the series they will become more personally involved in the stories, as will the Mage, but for now they are just pulling the strings and observing.
I then re-wrote sections of the brief to show how Mervyn is covertly equipped to access the Bourne by the Mage. I also started to increase the conflict with Prof. H., Aurora and Loren, though, I realised Aurora would never willingly work against her uncle with the Centaph threat so close so there are limits to how far she will go in acting against Mervyn.
Still trying to figure out how to seduce Loren into an alience with Prof. H. and turn her against Mervyn. Also trying to work out the true nature of the Bourne itself. This has taken an unexpected turn as I’ve had some great ideas, but they do complicate the story somewhat. Essentially, I’ve realised the Bourne is a puzzle for the Misfits to solve rather than just a monster, though I still plan for it to turn into a monster in the end. For the moment I’m just going to keep ploughing through the scene brief and see what turns up, then I’ll backtrack, analyse, consolidate, and re-write. Back to the scene brief then.
Came across this technique in recent articles. There are the links to see the articles in their original contexts: darcypattison.livejournal.com cynthialord.livejournal.com and
www.jacketflap.com/megablog/index.asp?blogid=678The technique that I particularly adore is her “Shrunken Manuscript” exercise. If you are a visual learner (like myself), this technique allows you to visualise your narrative arc. Darcy described it an interview with Cynthia Leitich-Smith: “Basically, you single-space a manuscript and then shrink the manuscript to a small font and print it out. This allows you to mark and see the overall structure of a long story like a novel.”It’s so deceptively simple, you’ll wonder why you never tried this before. It’s so amazingly useful, you’ll wonder how you ever revised without it.
Shrunken Manuscripts Work Because. . .In my case, AUTUMN shrinks down from a 140-page behemoth to a tidy 28 pages. I use my Shrunken Manuscript in every aspect of the revision process. When my editor asked me to flesh out my main character’s sister, I laid out my pages on the living room floor and highlighted all the scenes in which she appeared. Then, I highlighted all the scenes in which she could grace us with her presence (she’d be delighted to know we think of her in this way). A pattern emerged, and the task of making Katie more Katie-ish was manageable and (dare I say it about the revision process?!) fun! It somehow feels easier to experiment with changes within the Shrunken Manuscript. Perhaps because you’re marking up 30 pages instead of 150. Perhaps because you’re moving that block of text two pages instead of 18. Perhaps because your words seem more disposable in 8-point font.
As a visual person myself, I know exactly what they mean. I will certainly try this technique with my scene brief when I’ve completed it. I’ve also added Darcy Pattison’s Livejournal to my list of blogs aggregated in JackateFlap, because it looks as if she has something useful to say.
Tonight I’ve been updating my page on
Lessons Learned About Writing. Knowing the advertising/search engine value of multiple links I was faced with the dilemma whether to reproduce great articles, which I found really useful, so I retain them for posterity or just link to them. In the end I did both. So with thanks to
Anne Mini I have reproduced and linked.
Tonight I’ve been updating my page on
Lessons Learned About Writing. Knowing the advertising/search engine value of multiple links I was faced with the dilemma whether to reproduce great articles, which I found really useful, so I retain them for posterity or just link to them. In the end I did both. So with thanks to
Anne Mini I have reproduced and linked.
Came across this technique in recent articles. There are the links to see the articles in their original contexts: darcypattison.livejournal.com cynthialord.livejournal.com and
www.jacketflap.com/megablog/index.asp?blogid=678The technique that I particularly adore is her “Shrunken Manuscript” exercise. If you are a visual learner (like myself), this technique allows you to visualise your narrative arc. Darcy described it an interview with Cynthia Leitich-Smith: “Basically, you single-space a manuscript and then shrink the manuscript to a small font and print it out. This allows you to mark and see the overall structure of a long story like a novel.”It’s so deceptively simple, you’ll wonder why you never tried this before. It’s so amazingly useful, you’ll wonder how you ever revised without it.
Shrunken Manuscripts Work Because. . .In my case, AUTUMN shrinks down from a 140-page behemoth to a tidy 28 pages. I use my Shrunken Manuscript in every aspect of the revision process. When my editor asked me to flesh out my main character’s sister, I laid out my pages on the living room floor and highlighted all the scenes in which she appeared. Then, I highlighted all the scenes in which she could grace us with her presence (she’d be delighted to know we think of her in this way). A pattern emerged, and the task of making Katie more Katie-ish was manageable and (dare I say it about the revision process?!) fun! It somehow feels easier to experiment with changes within the Shrunken Manuscript. Perhaps because you’re marking up 30 pages instead of 150. Perhaps because you’re moving that block of text two pages instead of 18. Perhaps because your words seem more disposable in 8-point font.
As a visual person myself, I know exactly what they mean. I will certainly try this technique with my scene brief when I’ve completed it. I’ve also added Darcy Pattison’s Livejournal to my list of blogs aggregated in JackateFlap, because it looks as if she has something useful to say.
I have just finished the 3rd re-write of the storyline for ‘Ark of Knowledge’ – I think I’ve got it now, an interesting, compelling, and intriguing story with enough twists and turns to be different from the norm. Now I start the Scene Brief – just splurging ideas, key dialogue, and setting down for each and every scene. This is the ideas factory.
I’ve already settled on four sub plots I can develop throughout the book:
1) The operation and implosion of the Folksocracy. This will be contrasted with the absolute theocracy of the Centaph and their unbending, but warped, code of honour. Mervyn’s knowledge of this code – the Centaph’s main strength and their weakness – will become an enduring theme of the whole series.
2) Mervyn being haunted by his first kiss – if he’s 15 he has to have some hormones.
3) Loren’s betrayal the Misfits and her siding with Lord Dracon. Impossible? No, we all have a price and if our personal beliefs are pushed to the limit it is surprising what we will do in defence of them.
4) The way simple organisms can build complicated societies/structures.
Lord Dracon will be scheming through a new character: the Misfit’s archaeology teacher, the enigmatic Professor Hertzegovny – a corrupt version of Lara Croft.
The main academic theme for the story will revolve around two sayings of Confucius which I have combines together into a single thought:
‘Real knowledge is to know the extent of one's ignorance; to go beyond is as wrong as to fall short.’
The main thematic theme running through the story: is the conflict between greed and self sacrifice/duty.
Mervyn’s main conflict: is that for the greater good he has to destroy advance science that can end poverty, banish war and suffering, and cure his Mother’s mystery illness.
One of the main characters dies – not a Misfit. Having said that though, I have decided that by the end of the series one of the Misfits will be dead. Gasp, shock, horror!
So, plenty of conflict to keep the story moving along and plenty of scope for imaginative ideas in the scene brief.
I thought everything was ready to go off to the agents, then, I read
Author! Author! my new favourite blog on writing at annemini.com. This is a great site that deals with some of the finer points of writing. Two articles in particular had me reaching for the editing program.
The first was about using the words ‘and’, ‘then’ and ‘It’ too often in passages. I was fairly confident my writing would not suffer from this issue, but I though I would just check so I dutifully fed the words into the editing software and had it highlight every usage. Generally my writing is free of this problem, but every now and then a cluster of these words showed up, and the first clump was right there in the very first paragraph of the first chapter – I re-wrote it immediately.
The second article dealt with the issue of passive protagonists – protagonists who observe and think rather than actively taking part in scenes. The upshot is I re-wrote the first scene all over again.
The sample chapters are now ready for the agents again and will be going out this week, so fingers crossed.
While we are on the subject of websites, my other favourite at the moment is
Jacketflap: it is a children’s literary site, but the main interest for me is that it allows me to pull together all the blogs I regularly read into a single page. Just what I need, particularly as the IT boffins at work have a new piece of software which searches out commonly viewed social networking sites and progressively blocks access. I used to be able to update my own blog from work and leave comments on others, but now I’m just a passive participant.
I have just finished the 3rd re-write of the storyline for ‘Ark of Knowledge’ – I think I’ve got it now, an interesting, compelling, and intriguing story with enough twists and turns to be different from the norm. Now I start the Scene Brief – just splurging ideas, key dialogue, and setting down for each and every scene. This is the ideas factory.
I’ve already settled on four sub plots I can develop throughout the book:
1) The operation and implosion of the Folksocracy. This will be contrasted with the absolute theocracy of the Centaph and their unbending, but warped, code of honour. Mervyn’s knowledge of this code – the Centaph’s main strength and their weakness – will become an enduring theme of the whole series.
2) Mervyn being haunted by his first kiss – if he’s 15 he has to have some hormones.
3) Loren’s betrayal the Misfits and her siding with Lord Dracon. Impossible? No, we all have a price and if our personal beliefs are pushed to the limit it is surprising what we will do in defence of them.
4) The way simple organisms can build complicated societies/structures.
Lord Dracon will be scheming through a new character: the Misfit’s archaeology teacher, the enigmatic Professor Hertzegovny – a corrupt version of Lara Croft.
The main academic theme for the story will revolve around two sayings of Confucius which I have combines together into a single thought:
‘Real knowledge is to know the extent of one's ignorance; to go beyond is as wrong as to fall short.’
The main thematic theme running through the story: is the conflict between greed and self sacrifice/duty.
Mervyn’s main conflict: is that for the greater good he has to destroy advance science that can end poverty, banish war and suffering, and cure his Mother’s mystery illness.
One of the main characters dies – not a Misfit. Having said that though, I have decided that by the end of the series one of the Misfits will be dead. Gasp, shock, horror!
So, plenty of conflict to keep the story moving along and plenty of scope for imaginative ideas in the scene brief.
I thought everything was ready to go off to the agents, then, I read
Author! Author! my new favourite blog on writing at annemini.com. This is a great site that deals with some of the finer points of writing. Two articles in particular had me reaching for the editing program.
The first was about using the words ‘and’, ‘then’ and ‘It’ too often in passages. I was fairly confident my writing would not suffer from this issue, but I though I would just check so I dutifully fed the words into the editing software and had it highlight every usage. Generally my writing is free of this problem, but every now and then a cluster of these words showed up, and the first clump was right there in the very first paragraph of the first chapter – I re-wrote it immediately.
The second article dealt with the issue of passive protagonists – protagonists who observe and think rather than actively taking part in scenes. The upshot is I re-wrote the first scene all over again.
The sample chapters are now ready for the agents again and will be going out this week, so fingers crossed.
While we are on the subject of websites, my other favourite at the moment is
Jacketflap: it is a children’s literary site, but the main interest for me is that it allows me to pull together all the blogs I regularly read into a single page. Just what I need, particularly as the IT boffins at work have a new piece of software which searches out commonly viewed social networking sites and progressively blocks access. I used to be able to update my own blog from work and leave comments on others, but now I’m just a passive participant.
The manuscript, synopsis, and query for Mervyn Bright and the Marauders are complete. All that remains now is to send them out to my selected agents, and wait.
In the mean-time I’m getting on with writing the second novel using the same characters in the same universe. This time round, I will apply all those hard lessons, about the craft of writing, which I learned from ‘Marauders’, but which I could not apply because I was already too far into the process. With luck, this should eliminate at least two major re-writes, most of the agonising over storyline, and a whole year of writing.
I’m excited by this new project. There came a point with Marauders where I knew I could do better if I started again from scratch, but it was too late, the best I could do was soldier on to the end.
The new book is provisionally called ‘Mervyn Bright and the Ark of Knowledge’ and is a ‘through the portal’ type story with a few twists. During the story I will focus on the strengths and weaknesses of a so called Folksocracy. This is a name I have seen on blogs recently and refers to a group of people who organise themselves, without leaders, solely through the internet. Maybe the purest form of democracy to date?. It would be interesting to extrapolate this idea into a full blown society, put it under stress, and see what happens to it. In many ways it has similarities to reality TV shows in that every decision is reached from scratch without reference to precedents, often based on the feelings of the moment, and in which pre-existent prejudices and individual morals are the only absolutes. It is the sort of medium in which a few opinionated individuals could hold sway over others. It also has interesting connotations with the German idea of Volks which the Nazis tapped into during their rise to power.
Lots of ideas, but rather than struggle to fit the storyline into a synopsis and query after several years of writing, I’m producing these first and using them as a road map for the story. Then, like a script writer, I will produce a reverse scene brief followed by an expanded scene brief (see my writing process for more detail). I reckon this will take six to nine months, then I can start the actual creative writing. So here goes ....
I’ve just received back the final review of ‘Marauders’ from my reader reviewers. A few cherry picked comments: ‘Couldn’t put it down’, ‘really related to the characters,’ ‘Can’t wait for the next instalment.’ It also contained some useful constructive criticism. Some of this confirmed my own nagging doubt, also raised by another reviewer, that the Misfits should be older. I’ve been toying with this for a while since the writing seems to aim at the 11+ age group.
So the decision: In ‘Marauders’ Mervyn will be 14. It follows, of course, that I cannot run a six series story with the Misfits being one year older in each year if they are to remain in the senior school age range. I’m ok with this, so in ‘Ark of Knowledge’ Mervyn will be 14/15, and will have a birthday. In the final book Mervyn will have left school, which was always going to be the case, because it about what happens to the Misfits after school.
This reviewer also liked the chapter where Aurora and Dracon fight a Swot duel, she though it pulled the Misfits together in a really effective way – it was one of her favpurite chapters. This means the reviewers are split just about 50/50, unprompted, over whether to include this chapter or not. It’s one of my favourites too, but I’m taking it out because it doesn't progress the story line at a point where the story needs to more forwar quite swiftly, and there are other sections which pull the Misfts together. Maybe I'll work it into a later book.
To read the chapter in question see the ‘edits’ page.
The manuscript, synopsis, and query for Mervyn Bright and the Marauders are complete. All that remains now is to send them out to my selected agents, and wait.
In the mean-time I’m getting on with writing the second novel using the same characters in the same universe. This time round, I will apply all those hard lessons, about the craft of writing, which I learned from ‘Marauders’, but which I could not apply because I was already too far into the process. With luck, this should eliminate at least two major re-writes, most of the agonising over storyline, and a whole year of writing.
I’m excited by this new project. There came a point with Marauders where I knew I could do better if I started again from scratch, but it was too late, the best I could do was soldier on to the end.
The new book is provisionally called ‘Mervyn Bright and the Ark of Knowledge’ and is a ‘through the portal’ type story with a few twists. During the story I will focus on the strengths and weaknesses of a so called Folksocracy. This is a name I have seen on blogs recently and refers to a group of people who organise themselves, without leaders, solely through the internet. Maybe the purest form of democracy to date?. It would be interesting to extrapolate this idea into a full blown society, put it under stress, and see what happens to it. In many ways it has similarities to reality TV shows in that every decision is reached from scratch without reference to precedents, often based on the feelings of the moment, and in which pre-existent prejudices and individual morals are the only absolutes. It is the sort of medium in which a few opinionated individuals could hold sway over others. It also has interesting connotations with the German idea of Volks which the Nazis tapped into during their rise to power.
Lots of ideas, but rather than struggle to fit the storyline into a synopsis and query after several years of writing, I’m producing these first and using them as a road map for the story. Then, like a script writer, I will produce a reverse scene brief followed by an expanded scene brief (see my writing process for more detail). I reckon this will take six to nine months, then I can start the actual creative writing. So here goes ....
I’ve just received back the final review of ‘Marauders’ from my reader reviewers. A few cherry picked comments: ‘Couldn’t put it down’, ‘really related to the characters,’ ‘Can’t wait for the next instalment.’ It also contained some useful constructive criticism. Some of this confirmed my own nagging doubt, also raised by another reviewer, that the Misfits should be older. I’ve been toying with this for a while since the writing seems to aim at the 11+ age group.
So the decision: In ‘Marauders’ Mervyn will be 14. It follows, of course, that I cannot run a six series story with the Misfits being one year older in each year if they are to remain in the senior school age range. I’m ok with this, so in ‘Ark of Knowledge’ Mervyn will be 14/15, and will have a birthday. In the final book Mervyn will have left school, which was always going to be the case, because it about what happens to the Misfits after school.
This reviewer also liked the chapter where Aurora and Dracon fight a Swot duel, she though it pulled the Misfits together in a really effective way – it was one of her favpurite chapters. This means the reviewers are split just about 50/50, unprompted, over whether to include this chapter or not. It’s one of my favourites too, but I’m taking it out because it doesn't progress the story line at a point where the story needs to more forwar quite swiftly, and there are other sections which pull the Misfts together. Maybe I'll work it into a later book.
To read the chapter in question see the ‘edits’ page.
Came across this article today:
http://blogs.guardian.co.uk/books/2007/04/younger_readers.html
The following comment set me thinking, ‘If you ask most dedicated Young Adult (YA) authors why they write for teenagers, they're likely to tell you it's because they continue to think like adolescents.’ Is this why I write for the children? To some extent is it, but it’s not the whole story.
I write to entertain, myself and others, and teenage characters have a much greater capacity for fun than their adult counterparts. With all the responsibilities that come with adult-hood fun just seems to fall off the radar. Adult books, even if they are have child protagonists, are meant to look at the struggles of life, love, relationships, looking back on the effects of growing up. etc. They are expected to be serious, weighty or follow pre-set formula of a genre. By writing about teenage characters, for a teenage audience, I can escape from all those constraints and just write cross-genre entertaining novels that are fun.
There is another aspect to this, of course, do I have the maturity and ability to write about adult issues? The answer is yes. But why should I? I don’t, at the moment, have the desire to write adult material. I prefer to write about the adventures and heroes that fill my mind, and they are best expressed in the form of teenage protagonists.
J.K.Rowling, of course, has changed the rules with Harry Potter – now the teenagers grow up and face all the angst and issues that Enid Blyton avoided. Can anyone write a series about child characters without them growing up – I suspect not.
Came across this article today:
http://blogs.guardian.co.uk/books/2007/04/younger_readers.html
The following comment set me thinking, ‘If you ask most dedicated Young Adult (YA) authors why they write for teenagers, they're likely to tell you it's because they continue to think like adolescents.’ Is this why I write for the children? To some extent is it, but it’s not the whole story.
I write to entertain, myself and others, and teenage characters have a much greater capacity for fun than their adult counterparts. With all the responsibilities that come with adult-hood fun just seems to fall off the radar. Adult books, even if they are have child protagonists, are meant to look at the struggles of life, love, relationships, looking back on the effects of growing up. etc. They are expected to be serious, weighty or follow pre-set formula of a genre. By writing about teenage characters, for a teenage audience, I can escape from all those constraints and just write cross-genre entertaining novels that are fun.
There is another aspect to this, of course, do I have the maturity and ability to write about adult issues? The answer is yes. But why should I? I don’t, at the moment, have the desire to write adult material. I prefer to write about the adventures and heroes that fill my mind, and they are best expressed in the form of teenage protagonists.
J.K.Rowling, of course, has changed the rules with Harry Potter – now the teenagers grow up and face all the angst and issues that Enid Blyton avoided. Can anyone write a series about child characters without them growing up – I suspect not.
A colleague drew my attention to this article http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/low/magazine/6582955.stm.
Why write? This is my reply:
Computers, spell-checkers, auto-correct, and editing software have certainly made writing a novel much easier. Thankfully, though, there is still no substitute for talent, and you still need the discipline for the hard day-by-day slog.
I started writing a novel simply because is was a challenge I could undertake with a laptop during the downtime when I commute (two 20 minute slots per day). I had no idea whether I had the staying power to make it even to the end of the first draft. Five re-writes, three years, and a lot of editing later, I am finished. I don’t expect it to find a publisher, but I will try anyway, because that is the next logical step in bringing the characters alive – who knows, it may be just what the publishing industry is craving and I may yet see it in print. I’ve started a second novel with a much better idea of where I’m going, what I’m doing, how to do it, and what the market wants. I reckon this second novel will take me only two years and only three re-writes. This time the first six months will involve a lot more planning than writing.
Why a second novel? I’ve got the bug now. I’ve created one novel so I can legitimately call myself a writer, now I want to get published so I can call myself an author. Besides, what do you do after the first novel, just give up? Let my characters die off? They are great characters, I want them to live in other people’s minds as well as my own, and for that to happen I need to create a novel for them which publishers want to sell.
A colleague drew my attention to this article http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/low/magazine/6582955.stm.
Why write? This is my reply:
Computers, spell-checkers, auto-correct, and editing software have certainly made writing a novel much easier. Thankfully, though, there is still no substitute for talent, and you still need the discipline for the hard day-by-day slog.
I started writing a novel simply because is was a challenge I could undertake with a laptop during the downtime when I commute (two 20 minute slots per day). I had no idea whether I had the staying power to make it even to the end of the first draft. Five re-writes, three years, and a lot of editing later, I am finished. I don’t expect it to find a publisher, but I will try anyway, because that is the next logical step in bringing the characters alive – who knows, it may be just what the publishing industry is craving and I may yet see it in print. I’ve started a second novel with a much better idea of where I’m going, what I’m doing, how to do it, and what the market wants. I reckon this second novel will take me only two years and only three re-writes. This time the first six months will involve a lot more planning than writing.
Why a second novel? I’ve got the bug now. I’ve created one novel so I can legitimately call myself a writer, now I want to get published so I can call myself an author. Besides, what do you do after the first novel, just give up? Let my characters die off? They are great characters, I want them to live in other people’s minds as well as my own, and for that to happen I need to create a novel for them which publishers want to sell.
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