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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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:

• BBC One Gently with Class  
• Watch on iPlayer

The author Alan Hunter and the books:

• on Wikipedia
• on Amazon

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.)

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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:

• Patricia Duncker: What I'm Reading
• Patricia Duncker: University of Manchester webpage

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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

Literary Agents on Twitter

Heigh Ho! Agent alert.

What we would do to secure an agent! The right agent. The one that cares, that recognises our native genius, that knows all the right people, that gets us the book deal of our lives. 

Dream on.

I've started following agents. Not in the street you understand but in the Twitterverse. It's virtual. No harm's done. Its fun. Who are these people? What do they do? More importantly, how do they think?

Here's a listing of (friendly) agents and agencies that have a presence on Twitter.

Let's start with the agents themselves. Here they are with their Twitter tags, Agencies and edited, or in some cases unedited, versions of their personal riffs. Then we'll move onto the agencies and a handful of editors (if that is the correct collective noun) and other people; publishers, writers and that sort of thing.

It is of course, as always, a personal selection.

Literary Agents on Twitter

• Caroline Hardman ‏ @LittleHardman with Hardman & Swainson. Pocket-sized literary agent. Her taste is diverse. Looking for upmarket commercial and literary fiction, quality crime and thrillers, young adult and non-fiction. Drawn to writing that is clever and quirky: smart word play, unusual dark settings, great plot twists, and offbeat characters.
• Charlie Brotherstone ‏ @CharlieBroAgent with A.M Heath. QPR fan- Wedding Singer. Charlie represents literary and commercial writers of fiction and non-fiction.
• David Headley ‏ @DavidHHeadley with DHH Literary Agency. MD of Goldsboro Books. Bookseller & literary agent. Views are my own. Represents an eclectic range of best-selling and award-winning authors, including novelists, historians, short-story writers and children’s authors and currently only looking for fiction writers.
• Jane Judd ‏ @Janelitagent with Jane Judd. Agent to a variety of fiction and non-fiction authors. An eclectic list of non-fiction and fiction writers with an emphasis is on self-help, health, biography, popular history and narrative non-fiction, general and historical fiction and literary fiction. Would love to find quirky and surprising subjects in both fiction and non-fiction.
• Juliet Mushens ‏ @mushenska with PFD. Essex and proud, eternal optimist. Delightfully lowbrow. Secretly nerdy. Always looking for new voices. Represents a commercial list of fiction and non-fiction writers. On the fiction side, likes reading group fiction, thrillers, historical fiction, fantasy/SF and commercial writing for children aged 12+ with an emphasis on YA. On the non-fiction side, represents everything from celebrity autobiographies to cook-books, with a passion for inspirational memoirs and a growing list of ghost-writers.
• Juliet Pickering ‏ @julietpickering with AP Watt. My views only. Juliet is interested in literary fiction, well-written commercial fiction, mystery, narrative non-fiction and food writing.
• Lisa Eveleigh ‏ @richfordbabe with Richford Becklow. Reads, cooks, gardens; fairly nice, quite clever. Founder and primary agent at Richford Becklow. Actively looking to take on new authors and encourage and represent a range of writing talent. Open to reading well-crafted and thoughtful writing in all genres.
• Sallyanne Sweeney ‏ @sallyanne_s  with Watson Little. Building her list. Looking for talented writers of literary and commercial fiction. Passionate about writing for children & young adults, and is interested in narrative non-fiction, quirky gift books, food writing and crafts.
• Sam Copeland ‏ @stubbleagent with Rogers, Coleridge & White. Secret agent in my mind. Literary agent in reality. 20% charm 80% offensive. Building an extremely diverse list, representing writers of both literary and commercial fiction, science fiction, children’s (11+), serious and not-so-serious non-fiction. Happy to look at anything but self-help and business books.
• Susan M Armstrong ‏ @susanW1F with Conville & Walsh. Particularly interested in debut literary fiction, upmarket commercial fiction and accessible fantasy and science fiction. Enjoys novels that blend genres, are unusual in setting or circumstance and that have unexpected twists.

Literary Agencies on Twitter

• A.M. Heath & Co. ‏ @AMHeathLtd One of the UK's leading literary agencies representing prize-winning, best-selling and iconic authors. 
• Conville and Walsh ‏ @conville_walsh UK literary agents boasting prize-winning authors. We specialize in launching careers for debut authors.
• Folio Literary ‏ @FolioLiterary NY/US literary agents & book nerds. They have a nice Facebook page.
  
• PFD Agency ‏ @PFDAgents The Peters Fraser & Dunlop Agency is one of the oldest literary agencies in London and is home to a distinguished client list.
• RCW Lit Agency ‏ @RCWLitAgency Rogers, Coleridge & White Ltd.
• Sheil Land ‏ @sheilland A successful and highly respected Literary Agency based in London.
• Watson Little Ltd ‏ @watsonlittle Diverse. Enthusiastic. Unique. Savvy. 

Editors, authors and other people on Twitter

• Andrew Wille ‏ @andrewwille Teach write read edit cook eat.
• Harry Bingham ‏ @harryonthebrink My head is home to Fiona Griffiths: Welsh, dark, intense, clever. (Official diagnosis: crime novelist). Also help run Writers Workshop.  
• Kamila Shamsie ‏ @kamilashamsie Writer. Trustee of EnglishPEN and Free Word.
• Kate Lyall Grant ‏ @KateLyallGrant Commercial fiction editor, publisher of the Creme de la Crime imprint at Severn House; committed dog owner and world traveller.
• Martina Boone ‏ @4YALit Writer and Adventures in YA Publishing blogger with inspiration, craft, editing & market tips.
• Rachael Harrie ‏ @RachaelHarrie Lawyer-turned-architect of words, YA Horror and Dark Fantasy writer, Aussie. I organize Campaigns so writers can network together. 
• Roz Morris fiction ‏ @ByRozMorris On a mission to prove literary novels can tell a thundering story. Host of The Undercover Soundtrack.
• Roz Morris ‏ @dirtywhitecandy Writer, editor. Nearly a dozen ghosted novels in print, 8 bestsellers. Writing book Nail Your Novel. I tweet about writing here. 
• Bloomsbury ‏ @BloomsburyBooks Publishers of fiction and non-fiction by authors including Khaled Hosseini, J.K. Rowling, William Boyd, Margaret Atwood and Hugh Fearnley-Whittingstall. 
• FaberBooks ‏ @FaberBooks Purveyors of fine books since 1929, and still trading independently. Follow us for Faber news and freebies... 
• Severn House ‏ @severnhouse Severn House publishes a wide range of fiction, from Crime to Romance. Titles from our best-selling authors are available in all formats.

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Donna Leon

Talking about Donna Leon, she is another one I should have put on the list.

I would like to capture half - no, all - of the simple elegance with which she writes.

Donna Leon writes novels, set in Venice, featuring the Italian detective Commissario Guido Brunetti. The novels are, in my experience, consistently good and by 'good' I mean they are readable, accessible, valuable and, in short, worth reading. Other people seem to agree. Here are some snippets from the review-blurb on a back cover:

• she tells a good story ~ Scotsman
• clever, vivid and wholly absorbing ~ Observer
• an emotionally complex, intellectually and morally satisfying narrative ~ Scotland on Sunday

How does she do it?

Like Maeve Binchy, she builds her story through conversations between friends and this is the key to the whole tenor of her books. Commissario Brunetti has friends. In fact, he's a friend by nature and quickly becomes a firm favourite of the reader.

I am reading Wilful behaviour. Let's look, chapter by chapter, at some of these conversations.

• 1. The explosion came at breakfast ... Guido Brunetti's wife Paola is enraged by the treatment of women as displayed in the morning papers. The conversation progresses naturally to a mention of Paola's students at the university where she teaches and later that day one of her students, Claudia, approaches her with a question.
• 2.'There's someone to see you, sir' ... The same day, at the Questura were he works, Guido has a visitor. It is his old friend Marco Erizzo. They adjourn to a bar and, over a small glass of wine, Marco spills out his problems.
• 3. At dinner that evening, Guido and Paola tell each other about their day. Their conversation eddies around the earlier conversations with Marco and Claudia.
• 4. A week or so later Claudia and Paola speak again.
• 5. The next day, Claudia goes to speak to Guido at the Questura.
• 6. As a result of his conversation with Claudia, Guido goes to talk to his father-in-law, Count Orazio Falier.
• 7. At home for lunch, Guido briefly relates the morning's conversations to Paola, amidst all the banter of a family meal.
• 8. Back at the office, Guido phones another old friend, Lele Bortoluzzi.
• 9. At home, Paola and Guido talk about her father and his father. The next day, Claudia is found murdered. Guido phones Paola to tell her. He assesses the crime scene with his colleague Vianello. Conversations follow with the landlady and the flatmate.
• 10. Conversations continue with the landlady and the flatmate and with the pathologist at the scene of crime; and with Vianello.
• 11. Guido and Vianello work together in the dead girl's flat and then Guido goes to talk with a contact of Claudia's, an old woman whom she looked upon as a grandmother; Hedi Jacobs.
• 12. Guido walks back to the Questura and goes in to talk to Signorina Elettra, 'the woman who does', his secret weapon. Signorina Elettra is the chief's personal assistant and, while there, Guido is summoned into Vice-Questore Patta's office. They speak and later in the afternoon, Guido receives a call from the pathologist and then goes down to the lab to look at some of the evidence collected from the scene of the crime. The conversations are fragmentary but they are connected.
• 13. We are on page 110, the story is well under way and further conversations with Paola and Signorina Elettra continue to move the story forward.

That's all you need to know. The story builds conversation by conversation. 

Now you can go and do it.

Wilful behaviour, Donna Leon. Arrow,  2009

Paperback, 368 pages

ISBN-10: 0099536625; ISBN-13: 978-0099536628

Originally published in hardback by William Heinemann, 2002
ISBN: 0434009946

The book:

• On Amazon
• On Goodreads.com

The author:

• Publisher's mini-site at Random House
• Official author website
• On Wikipedia

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