Writing isn't Sculpture, it's Pottery

I've always used an analogy to describe my writing process - but I've now realised I've been using the wrong one.

Until recently I thought of writing as akin to sculpture.  You start with a rough draft (slab of stone) and edit it back (chisel and chip away) until you have your finished story (sculpture).  I always saw things this way as I slavishly followed the often published advice that you should produce a first draft then cut, cut, cut.

My latest novel didn't work out that way though.  Once I had my first rough draft things changed.  Instead of cutting away to my heart's content I did a bit of judicious trimming then concentrated on honing what was already there.  Through each successive edit I added to the story, building up the depth and adding to the detail.

I saw this as pottery.  Now, I haven't done any pottery since I was at school, well over thirty years ago; so I'll stand correcting on some of the finer points.  I started with my rough draft (lump of wet clay) then carefully edited (trimmed the clay here and there).  After that I started to finesse the story (shape the clay, add the handles and carve pretty patterns in the side - things like that).

This is all just  a means to an end but it did mean that my second novel was written faster than my first one was.

This had had a positive spin-off for my short story writing as well.  I used to adopt the "sculpture" method for my short fiction.  One reflection this made my short story production unbelieveably slow.  By switching to the "pottery" approach I've just written two shorts in the time it would normally take me to come up with one.  This will give me quite a productive summer until it's time to kick off novel number three for NaNoWriMo 2013.

Opening Lines

Writers are often told to make sure their opening lines are as catchy as possible.  Hook the readers and make them want to continue.  This is all sound advice but we should consider that the opening line of the story isn't always the first sentence that follows 'Chapter 1' - quite often it's the title of the book itself.

My current WIP started life with a working title of 'Bad Things Will Happen.'  Initially I was quite happy for this to become the final title.  Then the doubt set in.  As the story progressed and became darker I decided that the original title was too light weight.  It was starting to come across as the title of a YA novel.  While I'm not specifically aiming the story at the adult market, I don't want to give potential readers the wrong impression about the theme of the story either.

With this in mind I began to think about the underlying basis of the story - the 'hook' if you like.  This led me to a really appropriate title.  Unfortunately, when I checked on Amazon, lots of other people had the same or similar ideas.  This was not good.  As well as being closely tied to the theme of the story , I wanted the title to be unique (or as much as possible).  Finally I came up with 'Darkest Corners of the Mind.'  Quite a departure from the working title, but one which is strongly indicative of the nature of the story to follow.

Sometimes a more subtle change of title is needed to give the right tone to the story.  My first novel took its title from a line of dialogue. Originally, this was 'Dead Men Cast No Shadows.'  Right from the start though, I felt that there was something not quite right about this.  I didn't want to alter the title completely but something needed changing about it.  It took quite a while for the penny to drop.  The title was making me think of 1950's detective stories.  This was completely wrong.  Readers would be very disappointed if they thought the same and bought the book expecting a gumshoe story - it's actually about the after life.  A slight edit to the title gave me 'The Dead Have No Shadows' which, I hope, gives the right impression.

Both of these titles have taken some thinking about.  The title for my next project has been much easier to decide on.  Without a single word being written, I've decided that my third novel will be called 'Green Eye' - but you'll have to wait for another day to find out why.

Plans and Strategies? - I Don't Think So

Your turn now.  Come to the front of class.  That's it.  Now, what did you do last year?

Hmm.  That's a good question actually.  What did I do? (scratches head, trying to remember).  Well let's see.

I spent the first six months working on my script from NaNoWriMo 2011.  By the end of June it had been converted into a finished e-novel and published.

Somewhere along the way I also wrote, tidied up and submitted some short stories.
One of these was accepted and is due for publication in early 2013.  A lot of them are still out there on various slush piles waiting for the 'yay' or 'nay.'

One of the new stories was a competition entry for Writing Magazine (in the UK).  A bit carelessly, I let the story grow too long and also become something that would be totally inappropriate for the magazine.
I sent the story to a couple of publishers instead and it has now appeared in a short story anthology which was published in early December.

That's it, I think.

Well that all sounds a bit random and unplanned.  
What was your measure of success for last year and what are your plan and strategy for 2013?

Measure of success?  Plan and strategy?
I try to avoid those last two, if I can.

It's one of the sad things about the world we live in, everything has to have something that it can be measured and assessed against.  We all seem to be under pressure to constantly perform to the best of our ability and then improve on that the following year and so on.

Life should be lived and enjoyed.  We each only get one life; it seems a shameful waste of time assessing and analysing how successful we've been at it.

But, to answer the questions.
I've got work published, with another project under the way.
I had a great time writing (and editing) in 2012 - so, as far as I'm concerned, that's a pretty good measure of success.  I put hundreds of hours into writing - it wouldn't have seemed a very successful use of my time if I hadn't enjoyed it.

Commercial success is another matter -  it would have been nice if it had been better (but then most people will say that).

Looking ahead - I don't really have a plan and I don't really have a strategy (I can hear the howls of anguish from certain friends there).

If I have plans and strategies and set myself goals I'll put myself under too much pressure to better them and then beat myself up if something goes wrong and I don't hit the targets I set for myself.

I will finish my novel sometime this year (it will take as long as it needs to get it as good as I can make it) and publish it (at some point, once I've sorted the cover and the formatting).  It's likely to be another self-publishing venture but nothing is ruled out.

Once all that is done I'll probably start another novel; or I could write some more short stories and wait for NaNoWriMo 2013 before I start the new novel - it's not as if I'm short of ideas.

I'll do some marketing, trying tips and new techniques along the way.  I'll probably do this as the mood takes me.  I don't particularly like marketing but it's a necessary evil if you want to reach readers, and make some money.

I might join my local writing group - then again I might not (I've been trying to pluck up courage to go for over 12 months).

The nearest thing I have to a plan is the fact that I plan to write as much as I can and enjoy doing it.

Writing is organic in its creativity.  That's partly what I love about it.  The spontaneity of the craft can't be tied to objectives, success measure and performance indicators.

I write because I love doing it.

I would really like it to become my day job one day, and I know I'll have to adopt a more structured approach, especially to marketing if I want to generate the necessary income.
But if writing ever starts to feel like work then I'll probably have to stop doing it - and I don't plan on doing that.

Happy New Year, everyone.
Have a "successful" year - however you choose to measure it.

November's Over, So It's Back To The Real World

So, another November has come and gone and left me with two hundred plus pages of handwritten manuscript - the result of taking part in NaNoWriMo 2012.  It's going to take months of pushing, pulling, tweaking, twisting and viscious kicking before it will even begin to resemble a novel, but that's fine, it's a start.  I've got the basic building blocks of the novel out of my head and onto paper.  The journey has begun and, though there's a shed load of work ahead, I'm really excited by the prospect.

When I registered my novel on the NaNoWriMo website I put it in the category of horror / supernatural.  Sixty odd thousand words later and I think the novel would easily qualify as a psychological thriller.  There's still a definite element of horror in there but I'd be pushed to claim much of the supernatural.  Paranormal?  Perhaps, but then we could get into an argument about the semantics of the terminology.

It would be much easier to label the manuscript as "weird" - and, in my book, "weird" should be a formally recognised sub-genre of speculative fiction.

The shift from horror / supernatural to psychological thriller is probably a sign of my lack of formal planning before I start writing.  You won't find any post-its or timelines, character profiles or plot structures dotted around my house.  But, since about March this year I've been imagining scenes, dreaming them up and letting them grow.  The whole story developed organically, I just joined the dots.  I'm free to go pretty much where I want, or rather where the characters decide to take me.  That said, I do have a sense of where I'm supposed to be going from the scenes I've already had running through my head.

One thing I don't do during November is read - whether it be fiction or non-fiction.  Apart from not having the time I don't want threads of someone else's story permeating my manuscript.  I also don't want to get depressed by reading a polished story when my own work is still very much a rough scribble.  Once I've got my first draft committed to paper then I'm happy to start reading again.  This is what I'm most looking forward to in the first couple of weeks of December.  I've missed my regular fix of fiction and I can't wait to pick up my Kindle again and immerse myself in the imaginary worlds waiting there.

It Just So Happens

Consider this fictional character and these scenes from his life:

1. It just so happens that our character works three weekends in four and on his weekend off he just so happens to be in the same nightclub as the young woman who, just so happens, to have gone to that club for a change.  That young woman would one day become our character's wife.

2. It just so happens that, feeling pretty fed up, he arrives home from work one Friday evening at the same time as his neighbour.  It just so happens that this neighbour is an office manager.  The chance comment of, "Have you got any jobs at your place?" leads to a new and fulfilling career for our character.

3. On the day that the character is due to transfer to a new department it just so happens that he is seconded to another area.  It just so happens that this new role turns out to be better than the one he was moving to and revitalises his career.

If you take these three situations and weave them into a short story no-one would  buy it.  The whole thing would smack of cosy coincidence or even deus ex machina.  Even if you used the scenes as part of a much larger, possibly generation spanning, novel  the author might, even then, still be accused of contrivance.

The thing is, those three vignettes are actual snapshots from my life - albeit spread out over a twenty five year period.  Now, I deliberately worded each of the scenes (with the liberal use of 'it just so happens') to highlight the potential charge of forced coincidence.

Coincidences do happen in the real world and we shouldn't be afraid of using them credibly in our fiction.
The important thing is to show how these coincidences could happen.

In the first scene we would explain how our character only gets one weekend off in four and it is the norm for him and his friends to visit this night club.  We'd then have to show why the young woman and her friends choose to visit the club that night.

For the second scene, showing the two neighbours as friends who regularly discuss their respective jobs would foreshadow our character raising the question of a job change.

In the final situation, we could reveal more of our character's work background and highlight doubts and uncertainties about the move he was planning to make before he was re-assigned.

All three of these scenes can easily be regarded as coincidences.  They can also be explained away as consequences.

It's all in the way we tell it.

Author Opportunities - No Experience Required

There seems to be a growing resistance to self-published and small press novels.

I've seen quite a few posts where people will no longer read self-published e-books because the quality is so poor.  These posts go on to say that 99c / 99p books are generally rubbish and unedited.

This last one is a bit of a sweeping statement.
I've spent most of this year reading self-published and small press e-books (all priced to sell) and most of these have been as good as, if not better than, some of the offerings from the big publishing houses.

The posts also give a hint of protectionism from some who seem fearful of these non-contract, upstart authors.

The ease of self-publishing (both on e-book and in print), has led to the removal of many of the filters that would have been provided by agents, editors and publishing houses.  This means that everyone can be published, regardless of their writing ability, experience and quality of their work.

Now, this is just supposition, but it's possible, likely even, that some people are looking to make a fast buck out of self publishing.  Just knock a story together, run it through the spell checker, then stick it on Amazon and watch the cash roll in.

Yeah, right.

Even though I'm one of these upstart self published authors (and working at being an overnight success for more than 15 years now) I don't want to be tarred with the same brush.  Fifteen years experience has helped me hone my skills (and I'm still honing them) and from early indications my novel is getting positive comments.

The e-book market is still relatively young.  In time, as the market matures, I think that those only in it to make quick money will become disillusioned and give up.  This will help drive up the quality of self-published work; which can only be good news for authors and readers alike.

The market is massive and growing.  There's plenty of room for quality writers, both self published and mainstream.

Book Review - Dark Spells

Anyone looking for an in depth breakdown and critique of the writing tools and techniques employed in this book should move along; there's nothing for you here.  I'm writing this review because I enjoyed the book and want to support the authors.
I've got no intention of  tearing fellow writers to shreds - if I don't like someone's book, then I won't write about it.

As I'm effectively reviewing four stories here I've kept each one fairly short.
Anyway, here goes.

Dark Spells by Scott Nicholson and J R Rain.

If you like your supernatural beings to stick to the norm (no sparkly vampires looking for love) then this collection might interest you.
Now, these are supernatural thrillers - not out and out horror stories.  They skillfully blend the everyday and the supernatural into four entertaining reads - all without scaring the pants off the reader (too much).

Cursed
Albert Shipway's life turns upside down when he is cursed by a little old lady.  This weird encounter un-nerves him and triggers a chain of events that leads him to Tabitha, the sister of Albert's, murdered, former lover.
Now, I didn't particularly like the character of Albert (I actually thought he deserved a lot of what he got) and the elements of humour that the author injected made me like him less.  I found my sympathies sitting with Tabitha.
None of this detracted from the story or my enjoyment of it though and I found myself willing Albert to succeed - for Tabitha's sake - as they embarked on a quest to try to get Albert's curse lifted.

Ghost College,
Ellen and Monty drew are a husband and wife paranormal investigation team called in to look into strange happenings at a college.
Whilst Ellen is naturally gifted and dedicated to her role, Monty is more cynical.  He is one of those who needs to see in order to believe.  When he crosses the threshold between worlds to save the soul of a little girl, Monty's perception of the supernatural is changed forever.
This was my favourite of the four stories.  It was a much darker piece that brilliantly brought out the menace behind events at the college.

The Vampire Club
A vampire studies group go on a quest to locate and free a dormant vampire; little realising that an organisation exists determined to protect the world from the threat of the bloodsuckers.
This one was a bit like Buffy but in reverse.  It also reminded me a bit of Scooby Do through some of the characters (no goofy Great Dane though).  I'll hold my hand up and admit that this is more a failing on my part than on the story.  This was still an entertaining read and I ended up feeling sorry for the principal character when he achieved one of his life aims but lost out on (what I took to be) his main one.

Bad Blood
Spider is a vampire.  He is duped into helping a girl who appears to be in trouble only find that his vampiric nature is being used for demonic purposes.  This story paints a clever picture of the issues of being an outsider who uses their considerable skills to help others on the fringe of things.  Unfortunately for our hero, he is blindsided and manipulated so that he becomes the victim.  Despite the fact that, as a vampire, Spider is supposed to be a "baddie", his adversaries are worse and I had no problem rooting for him to win through.

All four stories move along at a brisk pace but still build enough depth for the characters to be credible and not flat and shallow.  I particularly liked the fact that the pace prevented too much detail being given.  The reader gets enough of an understanding of what is happening but is then allowed to use their imagination to complete the picture in their own mind.

All in all these are four easy and entertaining reads.