Sequel or Series

Book one of my new series is finished, well apart from the editing bit, we’ll come to that in a couple of months. Now I turn my attention to the next novel, but there is a question I’ve never really asked myself. I knew I’d be writing a series, but is everything after the first story, a sequel, even if the series is already planned out? Hard to differentiate I know, unless there is a definition out there that separates the two, a definition I’ve not yet heard of.

Even though I’ve planned the series, there are many do’s and dont’s about writing a sequel, and I ignore all of them. Well, to be honest, I don’t really ignore the rules of sequential writing; I just don’t know them and don’t care. I’ve tried writing according to the unspoken rules of the literary world and in all honesty, I find it a bit too constricting. Doesn’t obeying the rules of conformity contradict the point of doing anything creative? When artists talk about the rules of perspective, do you think Picasso bothered to follow them? The famous saying, ‘rules were made to be broken’ isn’t necessarily true, but we can surely bend them to the limit and find out how far we can go?

So with book 1, we’ve set our stage. With book 2, we push the world to its edge and look over the carapace. By book 3, we’ve taken the step over. We are always trying new things, but that doesn’t mean not to try ones that others tried before. Just because it didn’t work for them, doesn’t mean it won’t work for you. Give it a go, and if it fails, either keep going until it works or try something else.

So many people are trying to copy a ‘proven’ formula for writing, but there’s no such thing. Tell me what you think. Read, follow, comment and enjoy. M x

Secret Pseudonyms

The reasons for pseudonyms are varied. Some like the anonymity, others like the security a pseudonym gives, especially if writing about something controversial. But what makes a pseudonym? Back in the day, when female writers were frowned upon, they used male names. But why would you use a Pseudonym and what would you choose? I know one author who used their ‘Porn name’, you know, when you take your first pets name and your mother’s maiden name. I would be called He-man Bolton. Yeah, I know.

But let’s look at some of the more professional Pseudonyms.

Dean Koontz      -              Aaron Wolfe
Anne Bronte      -              Acton Bell
Emily Bronte      -              Ellis Bell
Ruth Rendell      -              Barbara Vine
Stephen King     -              Richard Bachman

 As you can see, two of the Brontes used the same surname and the same initial of the first name. So you can see they still wanted to be associated with each other. I know there are rules within the actors union where you cannot have the same name as someone else within the union, hence why so many actors have stage names. But then again, some of them changed their names not because they had to, but because it sounded better. E.g.

Norma Jeane Mortenson             -              Marilyn Monroe

But sometimes, she didn’t want to be recognised at all, so used a secret pseudonym, Zelda Zonk, among others. So when do the pseudonyms stop? Would we invent a super secret pseudonym when the secret one is found out? We have to them to protect ourselves, we use them to clarify to the audience what genre or writing style to expect, we use them for any number of reasons, but one thought has occurred to me. Do we create a separate character that the author can be?

 

I know it sounds strange, but if we assume another name to write a book, can we assume another persona for that same reason? Can our alter-ego write things that we would never dare? But now we delve into the realm of the psychosis and I am definitely not qualified to go there.

 

 

Tell me what your thoughts are. Read, follow, comment and enjoy. M x

Almost The End

We are coming to the end of Nanowrimo and our novels will soon be done. Ok, so my current novel is a day or two away for completion of the first draft. Once I’ve finished that, my practice is to leave it for a couple of months and then go back and edit it with a fresh mind. During those couple of months, I would write the next novel. It’s how I leapfrog my work. Write novel 1, then write novel 2, then edit novel 1, then write novel 3, then edit novel 2, then write novel 4 etc...this keeps everything fresh in my head and allows me to add or remove bits as and when they crop up. This way I can keep tabs on where my writing is going.

But when should I leave time for novel ideas? Between writing and editing, should I leave a week and allow myself to acclimatize? Or should I carry on regardless? I know everyone has their own little routines, and leaving a week between work seems like such a long time to me. I know we all reward ourselves after we finish a novel. For me, it’s ‘Ben and Jerry’s Ice Cream’, for others, it’s a bit of time off from the typing.

Now, with the novel about to finish, it is tempting to either carry on the story, which can be seriously damaging, or rush to complete it. If you rush to finish it, which I think we’ve all done with our first novels, that’s where you begin to make mistakes. So rather than rush to the end, I’m taking a bit more time and giving myself a couple of extra days to make sure I get the ending right. The ending can be just as important as the beginning, especially if leading onto a sequel.

But when do we get time to prepare the manuscript for publishing? When do we do that bit? I do that during the editing phase of my work. Once I’m happy with how the novel sounds, then I edit the layout, and make sure it is to the publisher’s specifications.

What do you do? Do you have any tips for other budding authors out there? Let me know what you think. Read, follow, comment and enjoy. M x

First Lines

First lines are so important, they are the opening of your tale and must grab the reader’s attention from the moment they open the book. But what makes a great first line? It’s hard to pinpoint and I don’t think there is a formula you can use. Charles Dickens likes to use statements, something big and bold that tells the reader that this book is grand. ‘A Tale Of Two Cities’ started with:

“It was the best of times, it was the worst of times, it was the age of wisdom, it was the age of foolishness.”

If you don’t know what the book is about, you immediately want to find out what the author is talking about. The line continues in its contradictory narrative for a few lines, but the first is what hooks its readers. Agatha Christie’s first lines are, I consider, the best. She uses a well calculated, seemingly random, description from a scene that drags its readers focus exactly where it needs to be for the story. ‘Murder on the orient express’, for example:

“It was five o’clock on a Winters morning in Syria.”

Doesn’t tell you much, but you know where you are and you are now desperate to find out why you are in Syria at five o’clock in the morning at winter. I’m sure these first lines were not found immediately, but worked on over and over again in order to make them perfect for the story they were telling. I know that when I write a novel, I often re-write the first chapter, or prologue, from scratch, 2, 3 or maybe more times, until I am happy with it. The first line gets your readers’ imaginations exactly where you want them. Once their attention, their imagination and their thoughts are where they’re supposed to be, you can paint the tale around them. Sounds easy, but it’s really not. Painting the tale is no easy feat on its own, but without a good opening line, it’s almost impossible.

What do you think? Read, follow, comment and enjoy. M x

Mourning Books

Have you ever mourned a book? Not because you didn’t like it, but because you loved it? I know I have. Do you know what I mean? When you like a book, you finish it with a sense of ‘wow, that was good.’ But when you love a book, you don’t want it to end. That goes for writing and reading. If you loved writing a book so much, it’s possible that you just end up writing continuously so that you don’t finish it, and that changes the whole story, when it should have ended 20,000 words ago. When you’re reading, you can’t keep it going, unless you only read a little bit a day; but that’s not possible for me, because when I find a book I love, I cannot put it down.

So your favourite book has come to an end, and you mourn it, because it has ended and you can never read that book with fresh eyes ever again. You can leave it for months or years before reading it again, because there will always be things you’ve forgotten, but what about for the writer? I know Agatha Christie loved writing some of her books. Crooked House was one of her favourites because of the fun mixture of characters, she was sad when she finished writing it, but she did finish and now we all get to enjoy it.

I talk about mourning books like it’s something that everyone does, but for all I know, I could be alone in this phenomenon. Maybe everyone else loves it when a fantastic book comes to an end and they see it with a head full of wonder, as opposed to my mind full of dread that I’ll never read something that good again. Maybe I’m just being pessimistic, or maybe some call it realistic. One person even called it romantic, to mourn a good book because you loved it so much and now its ended. What do you think?

Read, follow, comment and enjoy. M x

Happy Holidays

As we approach the holiday season, I am reminded of the holidays we’ve left behind us; namely the summer holidays. When we (writers, authors etc...) go on holiday somewhere with sun, sea and sand, do we relax as much as we should or not? I know what I’m like, I’m always coming up with stories that could be based in these foreign climes; taking notes about language, culture and other foreign stuff that I wouldn’t have thought about sitting at my desk at home. I don’t mean to presume that all people holiday in exotic locations, maybe you like to holiday at a damp train-spotting campsite. But while there, do you switch off, or like me do you keep your brain ticking over with novel ideas?

If I’m correct, then when do we actually get a holiday? When do we get time off? It’s not like working for a company where one would receive paid holidays, time off comes at a cost. We earn from our writing, if we stop writing, even for a week, then we lose part of our earnings. I don’t mean that we have to be typing the story out, I’m including just thinking about the story in this situation. All the planning, the research and the editing are part of what we do, to truly have a holiday, we must refrain from doing any of it.

If any of you are reading this that are not writers, then you might think that switching off completely is easy, but I’m sure I speak for most professional writers when I say we can’t switch off. It’s what we talk about most of the time and think about all of the time. So going back to the original question, when do we writers get a holiday? I’m sure there are those of you out there who can manage it, and if that’s true then please let me know your secret, I would love a holiday where I don’t see the scenery and write down its effects so to accurately describe it in my next novel.

Let me know what you think. Read, follow, comment and enjoy. M x

Food for Fiction

I hear many people describe certain foods as the food for the gods, or brain food. The diets of writers are as varied as the writers themselves. Different things work well for different people. Maybe when you smell certain aromas it produces an imaginative effect that allows you to create more easily? Maybe when your body craves a kind of vegetable, and you provide it, you can concentrate more on the subject? There’re all sorts of things that diet can have an effect on, why can’t writing be one of them as well?

I find that if I eat a lot of stodgy food, my mind and body become very slow and sleepy. Pork pies, steak and kidney pud, scotch eggs, I love ‘em all. But I try not to eat them while I am writing as I find it limits my capacity to concentrate. Coffee is a hard one for lots of people, as the cliché is always a caffeine fuelled writer pulling their hair out. But the cliché does have some basis in truth; we do this more than any artist or musician. But I have to start the day with 1 or 2 cups of coffee, after that its decaf all the way. I find it’s the smell of coffee that has a stimulating effect and not the caffeine.

I eat as much fruit and veg throughout the day as I can, because my mind is clearer and I can write with greater ease than if I pump myself full of sugary snacks. On the flipside though, if I’m on a deadline and have to work into the night, chocolate works wonders. The sugar keeps the synapses firing but not for prolonged periods of time like caffeine does. You then go into a sort of sugar coma and have to stop what you’re doing because your brain just can’t function properly, by which point you eat more chocolate.

Ok, I may just sound like I am paid by Cadburys to advertise, but honestly I’m not. I’m only promoting chocolate for its medicinal properties ;-). I have heard some people say that macaroni cheese is great for writers and others say that peppermint tea is superb for concentration, but you are never going to know if you don’t try it. See what works for you, and don’t be afraid to try new things.

Let me know what you think. Read, follow, comment and enjoy. M x

Fashionable Fiction

One thing I have noticed is the literary bandwagon. Do you know what I mean? I mean that when an author does very well and their books fly off the shelves (which we all hope and pray will happen to our own novels) everybody seems to want to read that kind of book. And that’s all you see people on the bus or train reading. Anne Rice’s Vampire Chronicles did very well after  ‘Interview With The Vampire’ came out at the cinema, and then again after the release of  ‘The Vampire Lestat’. For a while everybody at the staff canteen were reading books with ‘Anne Rice’ emblazoned upon the front cover.

Then it was ‘Harry Potter’, then ‘Twilight’ and all sorts of others in between. Quick question though, do people read the books because Hollywood decided it’s good enough to turn into a movie, or does Hollywood only make movies out of the books that we consider good enough to read? Which comes first, the chicken or the egg? The parasite or host? The book or the movie? I try to read a story before I watch it on the big screen, just so I can get an idea of the tale from the author’s perspective before the director rips it apart to make it more movie friendly.

Not only do these books do very well from movie exposure, but tales from the same genre also get an increase in sales. Look at ‘Twilight’, Stephanie Meyer’s title has hit box office records, but other stories involving vampires and humans falling in love have also done very well from it. ‘The Vampire Diaries’ is one example of this. Before anyone starts shouting at me, I know ‘The Vampire Diaries’ was written first, but it doesn’t detract from the fact that the novels (although good on their own) did well from the other vampire movies. The same can be said for the fantasy genre when the ‘Harry Potter’ and ‘Lord Of The Rings’ films came out, other magical novels with wizards and dragons cashed in on the success.

My point is, are fiction genres fashionable? Are some them in one season and out the next? I always thought that genre was personal taste, but when you look at the reading habits of individuals against the exposure of massive movie corporations, the similarities speak for themselves.

What do you think? Read, follow, comment and enjoy. M x

Blagging Blog

 

So writing a blog isn’t the easiest thing to do. Every day, or week, or month depending on how often you update it, you must find something to write about. If you’re writing a blog about a specific subject, like I do, (writing, in case you didn’t guess) then the subject matter can be very limited. Most of my blogs have deliberately been about writing novels, because that is what I enjoy doing, but today I am briefly blogging, about blogging.

Some people use their blog as a diary; others update it like statuses from a social networking site. I just write about writing, and I never plan what I’m gonna say. I may think about it for a moment and wonder,

“Should I blog about that?”

But it is never orchestrated, and I very rarely edit. I leave the professionalism to my novel writing, and the blogging is my chatty way to impart wisdom/say stupid stuff. I love blogging; it means I can leave the spell check and grammar check alone and just let go. It is very liberating to write without too much care about whether a publisher is gonna like it or not. No editors or proof readers, and the only critics are you guys. If you don’t like it, you read something else. Simple! It’s a fantastic way to say what you want, when you want and how you want, but what if you become a professional blogger?

If you somehow make money out of blogging on a regular basis because a lot of people read your blogs, do you start to pander to your audience? Do you change your writing style to suit them? Do you start using spelling and grammar checks? Do you lose the free form flow of your narrative and therefore your early audience who enjoyed your individual way of expressing yourself? I’m not sure, but I hope I don’t fall into that trap. If people want to read my writing, (that in itself would be awesome) when it is polished and perfected, then they can read my novels. If they want to read my work when its raw, rough and bashed out on the keyboard in a matter of moments, then they can read my blog. But I don’t expect the two to be similar, and I hope my readers don’t either, otherwise they could be very disappointed.

What do you think? Read, follow, comment and enjoy. M x

Family Fiction

My brother has been writing a book for almost ten years now, and is currently in the process of editing it. He has a full time job elsewhere, a part-time social life and a very active interest in computer games, (Sound familiar?). He wants me to read through his work once he has completed it. He has a belief that the dialogue in his manuscript is superb, which is possibly true, but no-one has read it yet so it cannot be confirmed. What sounds great in our heads isn’t always the case when on paper. The main problem being that we understand what we want the dialogue to mean, so know how it is supposed to sound, but will other people know what you are trying to say?

One of the hardest things for an un-published author is getting people to read their novel. Obviously the first people who read their book will be friends and family, and friends rarely ever want to hurt someone’s feelings. So first-time, un-published authors think their work is good enough to send to agents and publishers, when in fact it still needs work. Once rejected a few times from said agents/publishers they tend to put the book in a draw and forget about it, so the kindest thing would be to give honest, constructive criticisms. Then we hit another problem, authors are as sensitive about their manuscripts as artists are about their art. That is who we are, artists that are never satisfied with their own work. So we keep trying. I’m sure all authors will say that even when their book is published, there are one or two pieces they would like to change, but that is personal criticism.

When we are writing, we have little time for reading, and no time for anything else, let alone judging somebody else’s work, especially when criticism is rarely appreciated. So what can we do? When approached by a member of the public who asks if we can read their work, do we? We should, as I believe all up and coming authors should be encouraged. But do we have the time, and will it be worth it? That sounds bad I know, but what people want is for us to read the book they’ve spent so much time and effort on and to tell them it is fantastic and doesn’t need to change. That is never the case. I know that when I’ve finished reading my brother’s book, he will sit and listen to any constructive criticism I give, but he won’t like it. Are we too sensitive about our work? Do we need to listen more? Or should we listen to our instincts? What do you think?

Read, follow, comment and enjoy. M x

Fan Fiction

Fan Fiction

Fan fiction is usually young people writing stories about their favourite TV shows and computer games. Now I have mentioned in the past that I am not keen on novels based on TV and games, but fan fiction is a whole different story. When professional writers try to change their style to suit a storyline already written, it can come across as clumsy. But when an inexperienced writer, or young writer, tries their hand a creating stories about their favourite things, the most amazing tales can come out. Ok, so they’re not the polished gems you’d pick up in a book store; the grammar is awful and spelling is atrocious, but look beyond that and you’ll find wonderful imaginations spurned into working by the shows they watch and games they play.

These authors of tomorrow are starting out in the wonderful world of writing, and nothing can stop them. They will inherit the empire we leave behind and all we can do is help them. If the younger generation only wants to write about one particular show, then encourage it. As long as the story they write is original, they will use their imaginations and from that will spring whole worlds that we of the “slightly more experienced” generation could never have thought of.

I called us “Slightly more experienced” as I don’t believe there could ever possibly be a fully experienced writer, and there definitely is no such thing as an expert writer. But as we continue to concentrate on our craft, the young ones will be learning to appreciate it, through their own interests, and I can’t help but look forward to what this new batch of writers will produce and how much they could teach us. This is an exciting world where anything can happen, with only pen and paper.

Everywhere, I see people belittle the works of fan-fiction as not real fiction, but that is nonsense as any writer worth his/her salt would tell you. Anything written from the imagination is a work of fiction, even if facts are twisted to tell a story, its fiction. Even if the world ended because a purple unicorn rode a rainbow to the milky-way and farted the earth into darkness, that’s still fiction; and it would take a massive imagination to come up with it. Don’t mock fan-fiction, it inspires the novelists of tomorrow.

Tell me what you think. Read, follow, comment and enjoy. M x

Writing What I Want

Writing What I Want

So now I can to write about anything I want, but what do I want to write about? That is one of the hardest questions a writer asks themselves. It’s easy to say that you write about what you’re interested in, but how do you go about writing it if you’ve never done it before? Maybe you are a sci-fi fan, but when you try writing sci-fi, you find a lot of it doesn’t make sense. Same with fantasy, it doesn’t ring true somehow. Maybe you don’t know how to plan a murder, or to write someone’s biography. Perhaps you want to write non-fiction on a specific subject, but don’t know what points to emphasize.

Here’s what you do, get the imagination going and write it anyway. So what if sci-fi doesn’t make sense, does it have to? Fantasy doesn’t ring true, because it is fantasy, not reality. If you want to write about a specific subject and don’t know how to go about it, or what points to emphasize, write it anyway. You’ll make the points you want to make. It’s your book, it’s your work, it’s your imagination.

If you want to know about factual elements to add to your book, then do some research, but don’t be bogged down by facts; they can detract from the story.

Too much detail = not enough tale.

Anyone heard that before? I know readers who like their novels to be filled with factual content, but not at the cost of the story. Let yourself go when you write, because until it’s published, it’s only you who’s going to be reading it, so you don’t have to worry about embarrassing yourself. Writing what you want to write is a very freeing experience so give it a go. If it’s not for you, then stop. Simple, what have you lost? Nothing, so pick up a pen and see what happens. Let me know what you think.

Read, follow, comment and enjoy. M x

Writing Stamina

Writing Stamina

Have you ever heard of writing stamina? I hadn’t until somebody mentioned it to me the other day. They asked, “How do you maintain your stamina?” I had no idea what they meant, but when they explained that if we don’t continue writing, then we fall out of step and find it difficult to ‘get back into it’ as it were. Finding the motivation for writing when we haven’t got the stamina is very difficult. I write every day except on weekends, sometimes my novel, sometimes my blog, but often it’s both. This is why I haven’t noticed a lag in my performance. But if I was to leave my work for more than a couple of days, I would probably find it difficult to regain my stamina.

I asked this person, a successful author of some years, what they did to maintain writing stamina, and their answer was simple.

KEEP WRITING!!

But what if we can’t think of something to write? That’s was my worry, but he had an answer for that too. Don’t worry if you have nothing to write about, write about having nothing to write about. Doesn’t matter if you’re writing a novel, a script, a poem, a diary or a letter to yourself, just write something, because once you lose the stamina, the ‘get up and go’, it is very hard to get back. This made sense, but I’d never thought about it before, and that got me thinking. If I had never thought about the stamina, it would probably have crept up and got hold of me at some point in my career without my realizing it. What else was out there that authors can suffer from, or problems they can come across that I don’t know about? If you know of any, please let me know.

One other worry I had was, if this already happened to someone, what’s the best way to get their stamina back? His answer was the same as before, just write and keep writing. Start off with some small stuff until you are able to write the way you used to and you shouldn’t have any problems after that.

Let me know what you think. Read, follow, comment and enjoy. M x

A Writer's Life

A Writer’s Life

Any writer will tell you that the biggest sacrifice we make is to our lives. I’m not talking about life and death or anything like that; I mean our family life, our social life and our love life. Today is my Godson’s 2^nd birthday, and I took a fleeting moment out of my working day to wish him a happy birthday and give him his present. It’s only when I saw him, I realize exactly how much the boy has grown, and how long it’s been since I saw him last, which was a couple of weeks ago. Even then it was only a fleeting ‘Hello’ at the local supermarket during the brief time I’m away from my typing to gain sustenance (A growing boy can shoot up fast in only a couple of weeks).

So many relationships end due to writing. When someone takes up writing as a career or even as a hobby, there is very little room for anything else, and yet we try. The problem is that the others in our lives, especially the ones who were there before the writing took hold, suffer for it. If you have a successful relationship with your friends, family and significant other, then you have a circle of very understanding people around you. This is very rarely the case, as I have spoken to many authors on this subject, and a lot of them say they are no-longer with the person they were with when they started writing. Friends become neglected and though we still talk and try to see each other when we can, it is not always possible, days become weeks and then months etc...

These are the sacrifices we make when we write; this isn’t just a hobby, it becomes an obsession. We have to continue our writing, it is our work and it is hard work, but we love it. That is why we make these sacrifices, because it is something we must do. Do you guys agree, or do you think that writing comes last and should only be pursued in between seeing friends and family? Let me know below.

Read, follow, comment and enjoy. M x

Depressing Dialogue

Depressing Dialogue

I’ve just finished writing an essential part of the story where the dialogue is deliberately depressing. (It is a murder mystery, after all.) The only problem with writing these chapters is that I find it gets me down by the time I’ve finished it. Is that normal for authors? To find that you are so into the story you’re writing, that you feel what they feel? Or maybe it’s just the context of the text, so to speak? The chapter I just finished included the sleuth speaking to the grieving mother of 2 dead children. This was not going to be a happy conversation. But was it the dialogue that depressed me, or the situation? Or maybe I’m just being a bit too sensitive about my own writing?

When it comes to reading, I enjoy stories that are entertaining, and I personally don’t find depressing novels entertaining. I know everyone is different, and that some may find this kind of literature enjoyable, but I don’t. These downer parts of your story are essential for the tale and must be included, even if you don’t enjoy writing them, because you are writing for the readers’ enjoyment, and it is they who must be entertained. But is there a way to write these necessary evils into a book without it bringing you down with it? If not, and all good authors feel what their characters feel, then how do you pick yourself up again from this slump?

As I’m writing this blog, I’m reminded of a novel I read some years ago called ‘Disco Bloodbath’ by James St James. When only the bare bones of this story are examined, you can see it is an incredibly depressing tale; it’s all about drug taking teens taking overdoses and killing each other. But the way the author has broached the subject and carefully used language, makes reading this twisted tale of depravity an enjoyable experience.

So no easy task, but it is possible to read a depressing tale and still enjoy it, so can we write it and still enjoy it? What do you think?

Read, follow, comment and enjoy. M x