I have just finished the first draft of my first novel. Phew! Up to now, I have only written short and novelette length stories and had a real challenge over trying to develop an idea to novel length.
The method I used to do this, after having struggled for 18 months to get 19k words (or a third of the way) into my first novel attempt, was to use what the Fantasy Faction site refers to as “The Brandon Sanderson Method”: put simply, write a minimum of 500 words a day, every day. Without fail. No excuses.
For me, having a goal and a commitment to finish was essential. I had put the 19k so far and the outline, plus research, into Scrivener. Drafting in Scrivener gave me an update on the overall word-count each day and I tracked my progress over nine weeks that saw me complete the first draft of all thirty chapters to produce just over 60k words.
The discipline was important. Some days I sat at the laptop at close to midnight, trying to get up to my 500 words when previously I would have stopped and gone to bed. Other days, I was well over the minimum with no problems.
Writing every day kept the story fresh in my mind. No “Oh, I’ll leave it for today” becoming a week then a month or two! It also helped that I had a chapter by chapter outline prepared early on and set up in Scrivener so if one bit didn’t work I could go forward or backward and work on some otnher part.
Now all I have to do is revise it! (Oh, and develop the outline of a couple of follow-on stories… and outline another novel idea I want to work on for my next 500 words a day project.)
I could be busy…
I have just discovered a Fantasy community website that seems very professionally put together. See: Fantasy Faction
It contains some good reviews, interviews and articles as well as writer resources and a forum not dissimilar to that hosted by the BFS. The main difference is this site appears primarily (but not exclusively) US-focused.
I particularly liked the current series of articles on “Creating God – Religion in Fantasy” by Amy Rose Davis which I found thought-provoking.
Also of note on the site is the competition they are running for short stories for an anthology. It is open now and the deadline is 30 June 2012 with three reasonable cash prizes and publication for at least six stories.
Last night (Friday 2 March) I went to my first British Fantasy Society Open Night in London. Apart from attending Fantasycon2011 in Brighton this was my first SF/fantasy social activity for a long time though I had been an active fan in the (far distant) past. What really struck me once again was the friendliness and and accessibility, not only of fantasy fans but of the professionals working in the genre. Over the course of the evening, I was fortunate enough to be able to chat with several writers, publishers, editors and an agent as well as enthusiastic genre readers.
I think this accessibility is unique to the fantasy genre (in its broadest definition from SF through to horror) and goes back many decades. I guess it is because most of us start as fans – and stay fans of the genre. There is a real sense of community as well as of enthusiasm.
The BFS has had more than its share of ups and downs but it is a community more than a formal society and this was noticeable in the way the community pulled together to save it after the awards fiasco last October. Last night the BFS was showing its strengths.
One of the conversations – with Jo Fletcher and Peter Colborn – was about this, in part stimulated by the fact that I was “returning to the fold” – having been one of the four founder members of the BFS back in 1971 but away for years. We talked about what was different and what had remained the same. For me, the enthusiasm for the genre was as strong as ever, but what is very different is not only the number of fans involved in the fantasy genre (and buying the books!) but also the involvement of professionals with the BFS and with conventions. We could not identify any other genres that came close to this friendly interaction: crime and romance are perhaps the closest but nowhere near this level of personal interaction.
Other signs of a good community included an excellent charity auction in aid of a children’s hospice and, a particularly nice note, Steve Jones going round and, noticing I was a first time attender, coming over to talk and make sure I was involved and enjoying myself.
All in all, a great evening (and good beer!)
One objective in acquiring a Kindle was to try to broaden my reading, finding new authors or tracking down hard-to-find or out-of-print titles. While I feel the latter objective has not been met (my first experiment – and failure – was based on assuming that all of Anne McCaffrey’s Pern series would be easy to find and download from Amazon!)
I have subscribed to magazines that are difficult to find in UK and downright impossible when living in rural France unless one signs up for a late-arriving postal subscription. Since obtaining my Kindle at Christmas I have been enjoying Asimov’s, Analog, Clarkesworld and Lightspeed – all with free trial and reasonable subscription rates.
I have also discovered my first author totally new to me, but one whose work I will look out for in the future: Jilly Paddock. I downloaded two of her stories when they were on a promotion through Amazon (another benefit of the Kindle is the chance to experiment at no or low cost).
First I read “The Spook and the Spirit in the Stone” – this is a combination of SF setting on a colonised world and police procedural around the kidnapping of the 9-year-old daughter of an Earth diplomat. The story is told from the PoV of a local detective, Jerome, not entirely human and just reassigned from Fraud to Homicide division to work with Afton, a difficult to work with detective inspector. The characterisation, particularly the relationship between Jerome and Afton and Jerome and the kidnapped girl, work very well. Add into the mix an extremely unpleasant kidnapper and equally unpleasant Terran agent with psy-powers (the spook of the title) plus a nasty underground guardian (the spirit, a near-fantasy element) and what sounds like quite a mish-mash of genres actually works remarkably well. The story moves briskly and with good touches of humour to leaven the, at times, distressing tale of the kidnapping of young girls. I would estimate this is novella length and I believe (and hope) this is the first of a series of “Jerome & Afton” stories. I will certainly be looking out for more.
The second Kindle story by Jilly Paddock is quite different. “No Earthly Shore” is set on a colony world, Calvados, where some 30 years after arrival, there are indications that one of the local life-forms, the invertebrate “sea-quilt”, may be sentient if the report by 12-year-old Boadicea Nantucket is true. Junior member of the verification team from Earth, marine biologist Dr. Zuzana Aaron-Jones, suspects that her colleagues want to come up with a negative result in order not to impact a fruitful colony. The leaders of the team, Major Burgoyne and Dr Moya Kent, border on stereotype characters, impeding Zuzi as she tries to communicate with and understand the squilts. However, the main human characters, Zuzi, her new-found colleague, Mooney – who has an ill-defined mission role – and Boodie. are well drawn but the stars of the story are the squilts, particularly “Drunkard’s Path”, who are a delightful invention. The story is told with humour and humanity (in its broadest sense) – what does it mean to be sentient? I’ll not spoil the story by giving more of the plot away – it is well worth reading.
Both Jilly’s stories are available on Amazon for 77p each – good value as both would hold their own on the pages of either Asimov’s or Fantasy & Science Fiction magazine and demonstrates to me the new market opportunities opening up for good authors through e-readers.
The “First Fictions” weekend at Sussex University kicked off with an interview with Ian Rankin by local thriller writer Lesley Thomson. Given the theme of celebrating and championing first novels, past and present, Rankin read an extract from “Summer Rites”, his first novel. A black comedy with some fantasy elements, set in a hotel in Perthshire, it is unpublished (and, he says, will remain that way).
He also spoke about his early attempts to write, his first Rebus novel, the first Malcolm Fox novel and his first graphic novel (200 pages, four frames per page and which required at least a page of text per frame so he wrote about a 1,000 pages – so much more than a conventional novel).
When he started his “aim was to be a Scottish literary author not a crime writer” – he did not read crime fiction. He wrote his first three novels while doing (or instead of writing) his uncompleted PhD thesis on Muriel Spark. (Apart from “The Prime of Miss Jean Brodie” he highlighted that he liked “Loitering With Intent” which is about writers.)
In responding to questions about how he writes, Rankin made it clear he does not fall into the disciplined, timetable writer model. He works better with a deadline. “If my days are loose and baggy I can’t write, when I had a job I got more done.” With time allocated to writing he “did research: reading the paper, watching TV or DVDs – it’s all research!”. He noted that he “writes best in the afternoons and evenings” and although he had written some 20 to 25 novels “it isn’t getting any easier”.
In talking about the structure of a crime novel (crime / start; investigation / middle; resolution / end) he noted a significant difference between American and British audiences. “American readers are impatient. They want a murder on page one and a firm resolution at the end. In the UK you can have a more ambiguous ending.” He noted that one of his Rebus novels (I didn’t catch which one) has an additional chapter written for the US edition, specifically to address this. (Rankin is not the first author I have heard comment on this. Christopher Priest’s excellent novel “The Glamour” would only be published in the US after a rewrite of a lovely, challenging and ambiguous ending in the UK first edition.)
On being asked his writing tips he summarised these as:
- write every day: as good discipline and to keep the story and characters fresh in your head
- read a lot, write a lot
- don’t be afraid of criticism: read what they say but don’t react to everything
- don’t change your style just to fit to fashion
- get lucky, stay lucky!
- stick at it.
As an aside, I was lucky to get a chance to speak to Ian after his interview and in talking about living in South West France (he lived for a while in the north-east of the Dordogne while I am in Lot) he mentioned liking our local Cahors red wine! Good endorsement!
For some time I have been working on a novel, “Rose In Winter”, set in near-future London. It is a post-disaster tale, with Europe enveloped in an apparently permanent snow-bound winter. Survivors huddle together in communes in the Underground tunnels and the story focuses on one group who are based in Clapham, in the old World War Two deep bomb shelter underneath Clapham South station (south of the river on the Northern Line).
I tried to make the setting as authentic as possible. The Internet provided me with photos of the shelter and the plans and elevations from their original construction at the start of WW2. Google Maps and Google StreetView enabled me to explore the area and work out the routes followed in the story. So far, so good!
Yesterday I was in London on business and, between meetings, had enough time for my first visit to the area. Going through the station and walking the area put the scenes from StreetView into perspective. It also reminded me of the peril of using real locations… Since the StreetView survey on Balham Hill in 2009 the south shaft surface exit to the shelter (which is below and more than double the length of the station itself) has been demolished and a multi-storey building is under construction in its place. I have no idea of what this means for the shelter itself but it appears to have wiped out an exit / entrance and has implications for how my characters will get out of the shelter if they should be attacked (an event in part 2 of the story).
It is a salutary lesson that one needs to build in a certain flexibility or ambiguity to settings as it is impossible to “future-proof” them.
I am a huge fan of Firefly and Serenity. Recently I heard about the attempt to censor a US university professor who put a humorous quote from the show on his door (and which the thought police had totally misunderstood…) but have only just heard how it ended.
The YouTube video below, featuring Nathan Fillion and Neil Gaiman, tells the tale of how common sense only prevailed after fans of Firefly got involved.
Firefly campus censorship video
Another interesting thought… if Stop Online Piracy Act (SOPA) and Protect Intellectual Property Act (PIPA) are passed in US could someone based in Europe share this with friends outside the USA?
Given Firefly was a Fox series, check out the hypocrisy of Rupert Murdoch, that stout defender of the rule of law, whose News Organisation is committed to saving us from all those who would break it. Murdoch on SOPA
Oh? Did someone mention phone-hacking?
Great concept and site for anyone interested in dystopian, end of the world stories. Structured as a blog, this emulates the “Bumper Book for Girls” style but the main focus is on film and TV, seen from a strong feminist viewpoint. Check it out at: http://apocalypsegirlsguide.blogspot.com/
The sections that most amused or fascinated me were:
The article on cats role in the forthcoming apocalypse http://apocalypsegirlsguide.blogspot.com/2011/12/cutepocalypse-cats.html
“Know Your Idols” : Naturally, Sarah Connor is number one but there is an eclectic mix from Tank Girl to Hermione Grainger and Buffy to River Tam. Who’s missing? Given how marginally apocalyptic some of the references are, I reckon “Hit Girl” from “Kick Ass” deserves a place.
Received my new Kindle for Christmas. While I like physically handling books it does seem to be an incredibly easy way to read… and to obtain books and magazines. There I was, in rural South West France at 11pm on Christmas Day, able to download three out-of-print books written by a friend of my wife and also obtain the current issue of Asimov’s SF magazine on a 14-day free trial. Wow! I had been impressed with Amazon book delivery yet this was instant satisfaction, no waiting.
I will still want to collect books, especially first editions by authors I like (such as Iain Banks and Christopher Priest), yet for casual reading this appears to be the way of the future. The only problem? Getting the Kindle back from the rest of my family!
One thing that irritates me about publishing is the “band wagon effect”. Once an author is established as a bestseller, particularly if they have mined some new vein of gold, then new authors in the same or similar sub-genre are, on the publisher’s blub hailed as “The New <INSERT AUTHOR NAME HERE >.
The unfortunately early death of Stieg Larsson compounded this effect because he opened up “Scandinavian Noir Thrillers” but left readers wanting more but this is unlikely to be fulfilled (unless the possibly mythical fourth book actually exists). There has been a stampede to fill this gap, at least by publishers if not with the active support of the authors caught up in this.
Jo Nesbro writes good police procedurals but, despite book covers to the contrary, is not comparable to Stieg Larsson. As mentioned in an earlier post, to me he is more a Scandinavian Ian Rankin. There are other good Scandinavian crime and thriller writers out there who have suffered, in my view, from this sort of comparison. It may help short-term sales but does not necessarily assist them establish themselves in the British novel market as writers with their own distinctive “voice”.
Last week I found myself at Gatwick Airport, waiting for a flight, only to discover I had left the novel I was in the middle of behind. While this could be a good incentive to reach for the laptop and write myself, there are times when this is impractical or forbidden on a flight and I hate having “dead time” when I could be reading. A quick visit to WHSmiths and I emerged with “Burned”, a Scandinavian thriller by Thomas Enger.
Enger is a Scandinavian writer and this is his first novel. Nowhere on the covers or the interior quotes is there any mention of Larsson. There are some similarities: while Enger is a former journalist like Larsson (but he is Norwegian and the story is set mostly in Oslo whereas Larsson’s Millenium trilogy is set in his native Sweden) and journalists provide the main protagonist’s point of view (PoV) in both authors work.
However, the books are sufficiently different. Enger does not dwell on violence towards women in the same way even though the opening is a particularly unpleasant ritual killing of a young female university student. Enger’s plot starts down a Muslim fundamentalist route, only to twist and turn along the way to a satisfying twist at the end; not completely a surprise as implied in the blurb but it works well and is true to the set-up while not being overtly telegraphed.
Henning Juul, the journalist PoV in “Burned” has a past and is realistically drawn, especially in how he suffers from the after-effects of the fire which killed his daughter. There is a follow-up novel scheduled for mid-2012 and the ground-work for this has been laid without in any way spoiling the satisfactory conclusion of this novel.
So, Enger is not the new Stieg Larsson. He is a good author in his own right and his debut novel is recommended as such.