Tag Archives: amwriting

April 28, 2013 · 7:46 pm

There is a world elsewhere

What is true of life is also true of the world of novels.

An effective story world is key to engagement. Create a convincing one, and readers will want to live in the world of your book. They will want to stay there long after the last page is turned and the back cover closed with that final snap. It will remain in their thoughts and subconscious, popping up at odd times, taking them by surprise.

Life is very much the same. Create a buzz around your life, and people will flock. Sometimes, without even knowing why: they just want to be part of another world, one which is separate in some way from reality but close enough to offer them membership. I can think of several people who do this thing really well. They create feel good factor in the way that a good story world does. That’s one of the reasons JK Rowling did so well.

We all want to be part of a world elsewhere.

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April 22, 2013 · 12:12 pm

Reading for writing

In his book, On Writing, Stephen King tells us he has a well defined routine. He writes in the morning until about 11am and reads in the evening. Every day of the year, without fail. He also says this:

 ‘If you don’t have time to read, you don’t have the time (or the tools) to write. Simple as that.’

And I agree.

I’ve also heard it said that novelists should aim to write 2,000 words and read 2,000 words a day. I liked this so much I took it upon myself to try and stick to it, but in the end I had to go with write 1,000 words and read about 3,000 a day – I’ve changed the ratios a bit whilst keeping the discipline.

Either way, the message is clear – if you want to write well, you need to be a voracious reader.

As an aspiring novelist, reading widely helps me to emulate writing I admire and
It helps widen vocabulary and access recurring themes which fascinate me. When asked to compile a list of my favourite books recently, I was interested to see how many of them shared themes. This was not something I was consciously aware of, having considered myself an eclectic reader!

When I’m working on a project, reading within the genre I write in is particularly useful. At the moment I’m lapping up Gillian Flynn’s books, but also Dan Brown’s! Both have something to teach me about pace and intrigue. I’ve also returned to Kafka and Kundera for philosophical undertones and Nabokov for wonderful descriptions. Murakami’s IQ84 is a new discovery which I am devouring, word by word. The list goes on. The reading goes on.

Just when I feel like I’m up against a writer’s block, I’ll read something… amazing. And I off I go again.

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April 17, 2013 · 9:57 am

Ten editing tips

…which helped me transform my writing.

Two manuscripts, one nanowrimo and one Faber Academy writing course later, and this is my tried and tested editing checklist. Some people say it’s all in the edit. I’d say, not quite, but I like to think of a creative writing project as a statue which starts off rough and needs to be hewn into intricate detail.

My top 10 manuscript edits:

  1. Play adverb bingo – get them all out. Once they are gone, I see how to strengthen the lone verbs which are left
  2. Get rid of all repetition (ALL!)
  3. Ensure all scenes are consistent with their point of view (ie written in the voice of the character – go forwards and backwards in the manuscript to ensure the character sounds the same throughout
  4. Repeat #3 for speech
  5. Get someone else to read it (no matter how cringeworthy). It’s amazing how the threat of this focuses the brain
  6. Look at the physical shape of the language in the page – is there too much speech or long passages if prose? What does the average sentence length look like? Is it varied. Is there a good balance between action, dialogue and description?
  7. Basics – spellcheck, grammar check
  8. Print off and edit. Send to Kindle (or other electronic device) and edit
  9. Check synopsis still matches up with what you’ve written – if not, why not. Is the story changing or have you written in scenes which don’t really belong there?
  10. Read it out loud

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April 16, 2013 · 9:42 pm

Language is music

Do I have a soundtrack to my life? Yes, most definitely, although I’m no music buff. The music I listen to is eclectic – aka undiscerning. Right now I’m listening to an odd combination of Coldplay, New Order and a down-tempo ambient compilation.

But here’s a curious thing: I cannot write without music on. It’s a physical impossibility. Often my best writing springs from music I’ve not heard before. It’s as if my brain reacts to a great new melody by firing on more cylinders.

So that ‘s the music which inspires the writing, but what about the music which lives within it?

Recently I was introduced to the English teaching videos of Philip Beadle. His idea is to get kids into language through music: there’s a beat and cadence to a beautifully punctuated sentence. Yes! And there’s definite rhyme and reason to good writing. If it flows it goes. If I can hear the beat in the language, I know it’s ok.

If I can’t, I edit and re-edit until I can.

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