Wednesday 19 September 2012

Today's job

Today's job is to write a short story.

I can't do it. I can't. I can't. *kicks and screams* - as they say on Twitter.
Look. It's easy. Beginning. Middle. End. (Twist optional. Shout essential.)
OK. OK. But I'm the guy who woke up thinking it was Saturday and then discovered it was Wednesday when the dustcart drove past my window. 
Too late. Too late.

There. I've done it.
What?
Written a short story.
(Silence and more silence.)
Well, he said, a tad defensively. It's short.
ADVERB ALERT! ADVERBALERT! ADVERBLERT! ADLERT! ADERT! DERT! ERT! T!

Look, the sun's come out. 
Golden.
Ends 
(in case you're wondering)

Monday 17 September 2012

Bewitched, boggled and... now what?

From Emma Darwin's blog This Itch of Writing:

Bewitched, boggled and... now what?

Emma begins:
I suspect that for every writer at York who was radically re-structuring their novel before they even got to the station, there's another who left York feeling decidedly boggled.
And she continues with the wise and, at the moment, for me, much needed advice
I'd suggest that you give yourself a break. Don't rush to try to Do Things with your work ... don't let the IC [Inner Critic] impose euthanasia on the WIP [Work in Progress?]. Even if you feel that it's a fairly clear decision between Give Up or Major Surgery ...
... paint something (a picture, or a wall), make bread, go for walks with a friend who knows nothing and cares less about writing
I'm off to make a coffee. It's a start.
Ends

Friday 14 September 2012

Jon Spira: Write On

Jon Spira writes about writing in the Huffington Post UK Entertainment. 
And about the York weekend.

Write On

... the only two things you need to write a screenplay - a point to make and an understanding of the 3-act structure ... [and] years and years of work.
It's a calling.
Part of my work in screenwriting education is providing weighty screenplay critiques for a company called Writers' Workshop. They provide many services for aspiring writers and screenwriters, including script critiques, script editing and providing links into the industry for those of a decent standard. Last weekend, WW hosted its annual Festival of Writing weekend at York University. They hired me to film it.
If there was one ethos bouncing about the entire weekend through workshops, keynote speeches and debates it was that there was no easy ride and that nothing could replace hard work, honesty, integrity and intelligence.
 Ends

Emma Darwin on Psychic Distance

From Emma Darwin's blog This Itch of Writing:

Psychic Distance: what it is and how to use it

Essential reading.
Ends

Thursday 13 September 2012

Serious Poetry

A breakthrough at last.
I have been struggling through the pages of this book. It has been like swimming across a pool (for me), breast stroke, always on the edge of drowning. It is, after all, called Serious Poetry.
Serious Poetry: form and authority from Yeats to Hill. Peter McDonald. Clarendon Press, Oxford. 2002.
oup - carcanet

The first chapters on YB Yeats were tough going. I found myself wading through bucket loads of remorse and form that seemed both remorseless and formless but then, on page ninety-four, I was thrown a lifeline in the form of Geoffrey Hill. Here was someone whose sensibility I could, for all that it was impenetrable, understand. Perhaps the clays of the English Midlands were (are?) more congenial to me than the peatlands of the Celtic imagination although I of all people should be attuned to both, living, as I do, English in the Celtic west.

But I correct myself. I have no trouble with RS Thomas. Admittedly, RS Thomas is conflicted between his welshness and his englishness but so is WB Yeats, between Irish and English. I don't warm to Yeats, the man or the poet. It is something I have still to learn. I have only recently come to appreciate Philip Larkin. There are flashes of brilliance, of course - Things fall apart; the centre cannot hold - Down by the sally gardens - and they secure him his place in the pantheon.

Geoffrey Hill is another matter. How sensible his stance. (Chapter 4. Three Critics: TS Eliot, Seamus Heaney, Geoffrey Hill.) His defence of poetry is solid.

My faith in poets and humanity restored, I moved on eagerly to another epiphany. The book came alive in the next chapter as Peter McDonald tangled with WH Auden and TS Eliot, by way of Prospero and in counterpoint to Matthew Arnold. This chapter - Chapter 5. One of Us: Eliot, Auden and Four Quartets - is brilliant. It lights up and it makes sense. Here, Yeatsian remorse becomes, in TS Eliot, humility. 
I found the discussion at every turn illuminating.

There's no denying that this book is a tough read but it is worth persisting. 
There's gold at the end of the rainbow, if that's not too Celtic a proposition.
Ends

Wednesday 12 September 2012

The York Festival of Writing

The Writers' Workshop York Festival of Writing

Two things stand out.
They are not the only two things, there are plenty more, but these are two things I know I learnt something about over the weekend at York.
  • The literary novel
  • The closeness and distance of point of view

The literary novel

I have been suffering from genre confusion and it shows. I could not get my head around what made a literary novel literary. Two sessions helped to clear my confusion. The first was Alan Mahar, the Publishing Director at Tindal Street Press, an independent publisher of regional literary fiction based in Birmingham. Here's an snatch from their website which tells us something about who they are:
Tindal Street Press has always aimed high with its distinctive, regional, literary fiction
Alan's session on Saturday morning was entitled 'How to win a Costa Prize'. Who could resist that? The reason for the title, it turned out, was that two of the authors published by Tindal Street Press have won the Costa First Novel Award
Alan attempted to define literary fiction as having some degree of nuanced awareness of language, something original in the storytelling, something new, edge, surprise.
Later that same morning, I was at the Genre Panel on Literary Fiction and so was Alan Mahar. He was on the panel along with Sam Mills, Shelley Harris, Sam Copeland, Charlie Brotherstone and Susan Armstrong.
The defining characteristics of literary fiction were thought to be:
not commercial, not genre
style over plot
resolution of conflict not obvious
 
beautiful sentences
love of language
something you want to read again

voice
complexity and challenge
challenging what fiction can do

the writing is king (not plot)
good prose, simple prose
not showy or self-conscious
So, there you have it. That's what literary fiction is all about. 

Closeness and distance in point of view

This was Debi Alper in her Prose Workshop on Sunday afternoon. 
It was only a passing comment.
If you are aware of, and using effectively, psychic or narrative distance you won't need to use italics and the present tense to indicate to the reader what one of the characters is thinking. 
Italics. Warning Bells.
That's all I have in my notes but the warning bells had started ringing in my head and red lights were flashing. I had exactly this problem only a few weeks before. Two readers on my readers' panel picked it up. See previous post The Readers of the Lost Ark. They commented:
... there are three points which I think are the inner monologue of the girl:
Great!
She was going to die. Mum would murder her.
What the hell did he think she was doing?
The last of these in particular I had to read a couple of times to work out that this was the case.  Perhaps italicising these bits so that they stand out separately will make it clearer that it's not part of the general narrative?
 My only other comment as far as substance goes is about the line just on the top of page 2 – after ““Swim!” he said” – where the narrative then says “Great!” as one line.  I don’t know if my comment will make any sense…. and I contradict myself in a minute, but…
I just wondered that since other sensory narratives are given an owner in the third person, – “she heard an outboard motor” etc – this emotion is left hanging without an owner?  This probably isn’t an issue, but this was the only thought I had!  I wondered if you could add “she thought” after it, or to run this sentence straight into the next sentence, “She splashed..”, so that the emotion is joined up to her actions, and gives it ownership that way?
But, just to contradict my own comment in the same breath, I think the “Answered prayer.” Sentence works without any more ownership because it follows the line “She wished it would stop..” so fits with that to me! 
 I.e. it wasn't clear. It wasn't working and this was why. You can gradate your narrative distance, Debi said, so that the reader is always aware of what is happening, who is speaking and thinking. Distant, closer, close, very close, right inside their head - it is possible to do this without resorting to italics. This, I needed to know.

Unfortunately, I had not gone to Debi's workshop on Psychic Distance and in retrospect that seems like a shame. But you can't win 'em all and it is something I shall have to catch up with and practise myself so that I learn to handle point of view properly before the next time comes around. The next York Festival of Writing, that is. Because I'm going to need to be there.
Ends

What if? - a writer's ramble

It's the question everybody's asking. Or, it's a question everybody is supposed to be asking. 
What if?
I'm a scientist. (Trust me.) I always loved the facility in Microsoft Excel that allowed you to query your data. What if? You could create charts that would show what would happen if you tweaked this factor or that factor. Brilliant! It was a wonderful way of conceptually modelling the problem.
None of the foregoing should be taken to suggest that I loved Microsoft at any stage of my career. It was the ability to ask the question and see possible outcomes that I found fascinating. OK. Some credit should go to the guy or guyess within the leviathan Microsoft for thinking of and providing the facility but, moving on, it is the question that is important. It unlocks possibilities.
Now, I was never a very good scientist. I could always see too many possibilities and I could never concentrate on one for sufficiently long to produce a respectable scientific result. 
I have the same problem as a writer. 
Too many ideas. 
I don't have to ask the question. Answers bubble up in my brain whether I ask for them or not. Consequently, my characters and plot race off wildly in all directions, careless of structure and concept. What I need is not the question but focus. I need discipline.
Tough one.
Writing, for me, is about freedom.
But then, there is that other lesson I learnt, or at least recognised, a long time ago, in the middle of a field one fine February morning digging a hole in the soil in order to find the answer. There can be no freedom without structure, no liberty without law. They coexist. If we want freedom we must accept the constraints within which freedom exists. 
Life is chaos within bounds.
Ask the question. Let the answers bubble up. Direct the flow into channels that irrigate the row you're hoeing. Watch the crop grow. Allow the excess to drain away ... or use it for something, like driving the ideas mill to grind your crop to flour. Harvest the fruit or the root or which ever part it is that equates with the concept you are pursuing. (See previous post.) 
Write, write and write again.

 What if?
A tough question but necessary.
Ends

Tuesday 11 September 2012

Concept Begins from Line One

The plot and the 'so what?'

John Irving said:
"Whenever possible, tell the whole story of the novel in the first sentence."
 Concept Begins from Line One -- Or What's the Point?

Martina Boone writes about concept in the Adventures in YA & Children's Publishing blog
The first line should not only make you want to read more, but ... it should also tell you something about the type of book you are going to read
[The concept is best] expressed as a 'what if?' question. The answer leads to further 'what if?' questions ... and [out of all] those choices and answers comes your story.
The End

Julia Churchill's observations

Some useful tips from the Twitter stream:
 Follow Julia on Twitter for more: @JuliaChurchill
Ends

Emma Darwin's recommendations

A list of the blog posts Emma Darwin mentioned at York 2012. 

This blog post is packed with resources.

This Itch of Writing
Ends

Sunday 9 September 2012

Small Finds - two novels and a headache

The Writers' Workshop, York Festival of Writing 2012. webpage


Of course, I was absurdly over-optimistic.
I knew, deep down. 
It was a flicker on the gauges. Nothing more. It caught at the corner of my eye but I had other things to do.

Then the cracks began to appear and were politely pointed out.

At the York Festival of Writing, this is the process known as the "one-to-ones". The Bookdoc or Agent (prestigious people all) have a couple of weeks to take a look at the chapter you submitted a month or two before; the first chapter of your book. Then, at the Festival, you have ten minutes to defend it - i.e. to receive their response face to face. The Bookdoc also gave me a feedback form, a summary of the response, to take away with me and ... well, read at my leisure.

This is when you need to take a step back.
Objective distance is necessary but, on the York University campus, this means standing not too close to the edge of the lake.
Such books now seem to need some really strong or distinctive edge
OK. I can live with that. 
But ...
I did wonder if the archaeology would be more of a setting
Me too. It was only the first chapter. 
But, even more to the point ...
It feels as if we have two stories ... that might need working out a little.
Ah. Now we're getting somewhere. Gauges flicker.

Later.
One Agent, on Saturday, said: "Where's the archaeology?"
The other Agent, on Sunday, said: "Where's the crime?"
Harry Bingham said: The Art of the Pause.
It was interesting.

The Sunday one-to-one fell in the middle of Harry Bingham's workshop The Art of the Pause in which Harry invited us to consider the last three paragraphs of the first chapter of the book The City & The City by China Mieville. This was interesting in itself because my Saturday Agent had suggested that I might want to read this book. That's the sort of coincidence I notice. The gauges were flickering.
Returning to Harry's workshop after twenty five minutes, I remembered how Harry had said that China Mieville set up 'The Pause' with one enigmatic sentence:
With a hard start, I realised that she was not on GunterStrasz at all, and that I should not have seen her.
This, apparently (I must read the book), is never explained. The technique, Harry said, was to set up the pause and then do nothing. Never explain.

Where's the archaeology?
Where's the crime?
Come on, Gentlemen. That's the tease. That's the pause.

Foolish optimism was returning. I knew what I was doing. No, I didn't, but I saw there was the possibility that I might, eventually. 
The gauges were flickering. 

All was not well - I might have to break it up, rewrite it, re imagine it, them, however many there might turn out to be (the novels were breeding like mice in my imagination) - but that was alright. I could do it. Just think. I could have a cheap and cheerful police procedural self-published with Amazon for Kindle and a literary novel provoking questions like "Where's the archaeology?" or "Where's the crime?"
Quids in. Hey! Or, as they say, the pennies.

I must go and take a proper long look at those gauges.

Friday 7 September 2012

Small Finds - a novel

A modern, murder mystery mixed up with archaeology, economics and religion. (That's murder, archaeology, religion and economics: m a r e, as in nightmare.) A well-written, thoughtful story with off-beat characters, emotional depth and a compelling voice.

When there is a murder in Ancester, Detective Sergeant Marco de Luca relies on local knowledge to track down the killer but he is not the only one chasing criminals. An archaeology professor is out to stop heritage crime and a break-in and robbery at a local dig give him more clues to follow up. The dig, and a subsequent dig nearby, yield clues of a different kind. The archaeologists and their volunteer helpers gradual put together a story from the beginning of the fifth century that is not dissimilar to their own; a story of crisis and disaster, alienation and belonging. 

This is what I'm working on at the moment. 
Version 3.5 is currently going out to a Readers' Panel for critical review.
See other posts in this blog.
Ends

Tuesday 4 September 2012

Small Finds Readers' panel: Chapter Two/Three

Comments on Chapter 2/3.

Mostly liked it but there was a bit that I struggled to digest which I fear may be important later on! It is the historical section at the bottom of page 13 and top of page 14 which I found hard to follow. If it is important to understand this bit I think it would be helpful to use more of the chapter to explain it. I thought it may help to make the conversation less broken up, allowing one character to explain it from start to finish as there is a lot of information and I'm not sure it has a logical enough flow to the uninitiated! Or if that feels artificial then maybe some of it could be explained in a different prose device such as 'x had been particularly fascinated by y since they first learnt about it because..' In that instance some of the other descriptive bits that are less important to the story could be shortened to avoid the chapter becoming too long.
Otherwise if it isn't important to understand all of that then perhaps that part could just be stripped back a bit.
I liked the idea of two shorter chapters rather than one.

I think it's really great. It's setting the scene nicely and introducing the characters well to my mind.
I just had a couple of thoughts you might want to know:
 On page 8, the start of the chapter, I wondered whether to open with the second paragraph where Marco is thinking about food, so his thought chain (and the reader's attention) doesn't jump from bodies to food and back again in the first three paras. Perhaps 'On Friday evening as he was driving home-into para 2' then into the rest of para 1, and into 3 and on.  Then page 12, the section where Joshua is walking home and thinking back. I got myself a little muddled and wondered if using all ?past perfect? tense for the minibus flash back would avoid this to distinguish from the past present narrative? some paras have it already but some of the early ones don't which confused me a bit E.g. They Had gathered around the open doors of the minibus... Then on page 13 i like the use of it, but maybe for the first use of 'Oliver man' you could use 'The Oliver man' like elsewhere, so it reads as intentional use. 
I also think a break for a new chapter would fit well, although as it's all from the same time of day I can see why it might be all one chapter, perhaps with a few ****** as a line break?

I liked this chapter, more easy to read and get into, so these few things are me knit-picking really! But a few things to consider:
I'm not keen on some of the names -  Elyssia Goodenough? Is Joshua Jake and Joshua Williams the same person?
Moslem? I would probably change this to Muslim, I have never come across the Moslem spelling before and just read a bit about it by googling it, apparently some people find Moslem spelling offensive, although some just say its the old fashioned spelling - either way Muslim is probably better?

I'll give you the following feedback which I hope you'll find useful!
from which he only emerged later on Sunday morning.

'later' and a day and a half's time difference doesn't strike true to me...  Perhaps 'later that weekend, on Sunday morning'?

He wanted to hear more about the circumstances surrounding the
break-in at the dig and about the items that had been stolen and, if

To me, this would read more smoothly if the 'and about' was either ', about' or just 'and'

There's a missing 'he' in:

he thought might as well hear about them

Also a little confused about the 'handful of old coins' earlier in light of the medallions here - probably my ignorance, but a medallion to me signifies something larger and heftier than a coin... Maybe the explanation about medallions can come with the explanation about Constantius?

Chapter break - I think so, although it depends on how long the other chapters are I guess.  It's a good breaking point in the scene.

Ends

Small Finds Readers' panel: Chapter One

Comments on Small Finds Chapter One.
I really liked it! I think the balance between the descriptive prose and the conversations is just right, and I like the humour in the writing too. It is an engaging first few pages too- I'd keep reading! The only thing I wondered about was the first conversation between Marco and Rose- the bit of banter about taking the car vs walking seemed a bit unlikely to be followed by the sense of urgency from Rose in telling him about the body.

I'm really enjoying reading it, so I guess that's feedback number one.  Lots of nice little touches in there too, like 'expression somewhere between exasperation and exasperation'... Also like the cliff-hangers at the end of each section... Picky as I am, there are a couple of things!  Again, these are just my opinion and so don't feel you have to take any of them on board! 
Firstly, I've only ever known 'dapper' applied to men, and a quick look on
thesaurus.com shows this: dapper adjective (only ever used with reference to men, not women) so, perhaps another adjective here would work better (unless again, there's some other context I'm unaware of!) I also thought there might be a comma too many here - I've bracketed the bit that I think you could lose to perhaps make it read more smoothly:
She was walking from the town library, where she worked, to the Post Office in the
centre of the town [, because she needed] to post a package, when a man stepped out in
front of her and she almost
...


I have only skim read the first 4 pages but I find the dialogue on the first 2 pages means its quite difficult to get into it straight away, it's a bit he said, she said.  I find the writing style of the 2nd 2 pages much easier to get into and more interesting - but it might just be me! Maybe you could flip these two sections so that the one about the detectives is second - or will that ruin the rest of the flow?
  I like the descriptive writing, but one thing - it is set in the UK isn't it? I think you should use car park rather than parking lot!!

I really like it. I'm keen to read more to find out what happens so that's grand! 
- the female detective constable, just wanted to check it was deliberate to call here 'rose bush '? Am sure itis,  but just in case not!  
- then very minor thoughts, 
Wondered whether 'the ' before capital H High Street was needed, or if it looked easier to drop the 'the ' or the capitals? And when you introduce Alan the first time, I wondered if you didn't need his surname,  as this surname is then given un the next para,  a bit like when you introduce rose,  by first name, and then use the surname the next time.
Ends

Time travel?

No, not time travel as such, but an engagement with the past.

Try this,

Small Finds

Murder and archaeology connect a local community with the crisis and upheaval of the end of Roman Britain.
Ends

The Readers of the Lost Ark

Readers' Panel Report. 1.

Small Finds

A murder mystery with time travel. 
An archaeological dig, a modern community and an untold story.
A short something to read: a 500 word extract from the novel prepared for the Writing Festival in York.
A collation of all the comments.
Firstly, the pacing is nice and high-octane, and you set the scene very well.  Easy to picture.
Also like the suspense - makes me want to read on to find out what's going to happen!
There are a couple of bits that to me could be clearer.  Firstly, this bit:
“Four hundred yards ... right ... then water,” she said.
“Interesting,” said Harrison Jones.
They swung right and the vehicle ahead turned left.
I'm not sure how 'she' knows to turn right when Harrison doesn't, and the car ahead turning left seems to suggest they are going the wrong way?
The other bit is that there are three points which I think are the inner monologue of the girl:
Great!
She was going to die. Mum would murder her.
What the hell did he think she was doing?
The last of these in particular I had to read a couple of times to work out that this was the case.  Perhaps italicising these bits so that they stand out separately will make it clearer that it's not part of the general narrative?
From a 'flowing' perspective I think it's all great, with the exception of this passage:
They skimmed between buildings - sheds of some kind – with water close by. They
burst onto a road. Tyres squealed on tarmac. The other car swerved and disappeared
between high hedges. Harrison Jones followed and they were met with a blaze of
white and flashing blue light.
Using 'Harrison Jones followed' (i.e. the full name) seems a little awkward in this paragraph.  Perhaps 'Jones followed and...', although this depends on how you've referred to him throughout the book I guess.
And that brings me on to the biggy...
Feel free to disregard this (in fact, feel free to disregard all of it, as it's just my tuppence worth!), but I'm not sure about the Harrison Jones name as the main character.  I can see what you're doing, and it does immediately put me in the picture as to what the rest of the book is going to be like (if my suspicions are correct, of course).  However, it might be seen as being a bit 'obvious'.  My concern is that it perhaps positions the book as a piece of fan fiction, with the names changed to avoid copyright issues, whereas you probably want the book to stand on its own merits.
I think it’s great – very gripping, fast paced and engaging. I think the way it’s written: short lines, snaps of dialogue etc, contributes really well to that.
 My only other comment as far as substance goes is about the line just on the top of page 2 – after ““Swim!” he said” – where the narrative then says “Great!” as one line.  I don’t know if my comment will make any sense…. and I contradict myself in a minute, but…
I just wondered that since other sensory narratives are given an owner in the third person, – “she heard an outboard motor” etc – this emotion is left hanging without an owner?  This probably isn’t an issue, but this was the only thought I had!  I wondered if you could add “she thought” after it, or to run this sentence straight into the next sentence, “She splashed..”, so that the emotion is joined up to her actions, and gives it ownership that way?
But, just to contradict my own comment in the same breath, I think the “Answered prayer.” Sentence works without any more ownership because it follows the line “She wished it would stop..” so fits with that to me! 
genuinely liked the full use of protagonists name for use of excerpt. Creates intrigue around the character. I thought it worked well for the purposes of an excerpt. You need to be able to demonstrate as many features of the book as possible in a short space and that does give an insight to the character which may be lost if you remove it.
End of comments relating to A short something to read

7 tips for keeping your motivation as a writer

OK. Lets' have a look. What are the tips?
  1. Outlining. 
  2. Take a break. 
  3. Let it go. 
Let it go? AArrGGh!.....
  • 4 ...
  • 5 ...
  • 6 ...
  • 7 ...
Are you serious?
I know. I know. You are.
7 tips for keeping your motivation as a writer
From RozMorris at the Nail your Novel blog.
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Monday 3 September 2012

Inspector George Gently

Last night, despite the almost overwhelming attraction of Prom 69 on BBCRadio3, I settled for George Gently on BBC2. So now George, as a penance, you'll have to pay your way.
What was it all about? Was it any good?
Here's a quick summary:
  • A young woman is found drowned in upside down car in river
  • George Gently is in with his GP downloading grief
  • DS Jupiter is in bed with ... (Its better not to know)
  • The chief suspect (there's history) is local Hooray Henry
  • The investigation begins
  • Mix in standard Country House eccentricity
  • The young woman's father, it turns out, works on the estate
  • Lord B is refreshingly down to earth
  • His wife is awful, his son Hooray H.
  • Young woman was a singer with the band. Widely admired.
  • Signal class warfare.
  • OK. Cut to the chase. Who done it?
  • Not telling.
In terms of literary structure. The genre is Crime. The play is the detective (GG) and his sidekick (DS Bacchus). The characters are from central casting except for the young woman herself and, perhaps, Lord B. We learn about the young woman, obviously, in retrospect, through the recollections of others, which are fully realised on television. I don't know how it was done in the book. If there is a book.
[Technical note:
  • Director: Gillies MacKinnon
  • Producer: Faye Dorn
  • Writer: Peter Flannery
 Close Technical note.]
The pace was point perfect; the pitch, nicely judged; Martin Shaw giving George Gently the right amount of gravitas and humanity. You (me) had to keep watching even though you (me) might have been trying (pretending) to read a serious discussion of the mental state of St Paul the apostle as displayed in .... (I'll have to read it again.) The conclusion was overworked. It is my one criticism. The author (scriptwriter) tried too hard. It was all very Agatha Christie and Miss Marple in the drawing room. No, she didn't do it. She explained who done it. No, she wasn't ... Oh. I give up.

So, in summary, the whole thing - in terms of what made it watchable (i.e. as a book, readable) - swings around the characters of George Gently, his Lordship and the young woman with the others bit-players, necessary but not essential; if you know what I mean.

Perhaps it was just the acting. Perhaps it was there in the writing. In terms of reading and writing, it demonstrates a truth that if one of the characters, on the page, doesn't grab the reader pretty damn quick then the reader may opt to investigate the mental state of a first century lunatic instead. (For more on this, see my future blog on The Return of the Native. Yes, Eustachia Vye, not St Paul.)

The television programme: Inspector George Gently, Series 5, Episode 2:
The author Alan Hunter and the books:
Now I'll have to find Messiaen and Mahler on iPlayer. Note: these links are only valid for 6 days starting ... Now! (I mean my now not your now.)
Ends

Sunday 2 September 2012

Patricia Duncker: What I'm Reading

Patricia Duncker is Professor of Contemporary Literature at Manchester University. She teaches Romantic, Victorian and contemporary literature and supervises doctoral work, both creative and critical. 
On her web site, she gives some clues to her own reading.
JULY 2012
Never underestimate the power of the simple linear plot...
NOVEMBER 2011
I dip my nose into the giant pool of genre fiction at less frequent intervals than my closest friends do, the friends who are also writers. Most of them read crime...
See:
Ends

Writability: How to Use Brainstorming to Edit

Your goal isn't to rewrite what's already there—it's to relive the scene and write something better.
 From the blog post by Ava Jae. 
Writability: How to Use Brainstorming to Edit

You’re Reading It Wrong: How to Not Treat Your Readers - Surly Muse

Once you finish a book and put it out there, it pretty much has to speak for itself. You don’t get to tell your readers how they’re allowed to interpret it, or how to feel about it.  
From the blog post by Daniel Swensen.
You’re Reading It Wrong: How to Not Treat Your Readers - Surly Muse