Writing - The essential element of consistency

  

Trust  - on all sorts of levels - is a key element in the relationship between reader and writer and authorial consistency is essential for this. For example, if you have your hero aged 27 on page 11 and aged 29 on page 12, readers can't read on for the alarm bells ringing in their heads. They are suddenly concerned that you don't know much about your own characters. Similarly with memoir - you can't have people dying inconsistently. So attention to detail is vital. But how do you keep track of all that detail - birthdates, exams, Halloween, dances, travel days, significant periods. For example, you may need to make a note of how long it takes to hand-stitch a dress.

 

A few practical tools will help. You will by now be familiar with the uses to which a novelist can put notebooks, folders, wallets and sticky notes. Pinboards can provide inspirational wall-decoration festooned with visual aids such as photos (cut out of magazines or withdrawn from family albums) which may suggest the physical attributes of hero and heroine. Or you can pin-up maps, town plans, street plans or room plans - if they'll help you visualise where your hero is and how he moves around the space. You will also gather around you a reference library of everything from Brewer's Dictionary of Phrase and Fable to Roget's Thesaurus. 

But don't neglect the potential of the Spreadsheet - computer-based or otherwise. This can help you with:

·       Timeline - what happens and when in your story. Check for feasibility.

·       Chapter designation - reflecting the story arc, clarifying what's important for you in it.

·       Word Count - totting up the totals (Have you written a novel? A blockbuster or a novella . . ?)

·       A note on the Point of View character for each chapter. (Avoid unnecessary head-hopping.)

·       Locations - a list of settings (also indicating areas of required research).

So, as you see, you may find you are using far more than pen and paper or a computer to help you to write a book 

The 2014 literary blog tour - My Writing Process!

Nikki Bennett will post to the Literary Blog Tour, My Writing Process!

On September 7th 2014, poet Nikki Bennett will post her contribution to her Facebook Page! Do look her up at Nikki Bennett and then explore her website. Worth making time for this! This is part of a national trail. For my contribution, see this blog, http:// lizziegates.blogspot.co.uk on August 22nd.

My Writing Process - A literary blog tour!

My Writing Process

Hope this turns into a blog post. Not too sure what I'm doing but wanted to announce that I've just been tagged in a literary blog tour by Jacqueline Farrell . If you ever thought vampires and crones were not for you, Jackie could change your mind!

As for me, well, consider the following:

1.What am I working on?

I am writing a trilogy entitled The Craig Lowrie Chronicles, and - being me - I have started in the middle with (working title) The Marie Antoinette Factor. In 1793 - the year of Marie Antoinette's execution - a French seamstress and a clan chief meet on the west coast of Scotland. Danger from sources at home and abroad threaten them and the novel explores how they adapt to and - in some cases - master change imposed upon them by huge external forces. With lots of fancy footwork, the use of a dirk and glimpses of exquisite embroidery. Read on  . . .

2. How does my work differ from others of its genre? In a word, depth. The novel's characters, good or evil, make mistakes and work through them. There is also humour in the sub-plots. And, although the conventions of historical romance are the starting points - and I am not breaking any moulds - the story moves on from there.

3.Why do I write what I do? Because I am a story-teller but I also like to explore issues and follow my characters where they lead within that context. The whole experience is something of a box of delights: art, craft, following trails of research and so on and so forth.

4. How does my writing process work?

Office hours for research and planning (I even use Excel). But I like to start by telling the story and that process can happen in a notebook in the queue at the supermarket. Once I have the plot draft (story) complete, I go back and polish till it shines. This could go on for ever so I use a peer critique group to give me deadlines! Having been a published journalist for 25 years, I'm a bit pavlovian about the word 'Deadline!'

Many thanks to Jackie Farrell - and do visit her website - for inviting me to contribute to this blog tour. I'll post when 'The Marie Antoinette Factor' is close to publication.

In the meantime, I'd like to nominate a poet to take up the challenge. Nikki Bennett is a well-known poet, appearing in a number of anthologies. Check out her beautiful poetry  at www.nikkibennettpoems.com and look out for her blog on this literary blog tour  later in September (I'll post when I know the exact date!)_

Values and motivation - what's yours?

Every so often, a writer would do very well to ask themselves why they put themselves through the highs and lows of the writing life? Self-exploration on this point saves time and restores confidence. So - ask yourself:

1. Do I want to write to set the record straight?
2. Do I want to take my revenge?
3. Do I want to make some money?
4. Do I want to write to show others I can?
5. Do I want to write my way to fame?
6. Do I want to make a difference - and I think I can through writing?
7. Do i want to keep my brain stimulated?
8. Do I just want a writer's lifestyle?

Apart from a Yes/No answer, you could also grade your answers on a scale of 1 - 10. And this will indicate your writer's values.

But another way of discovering your motivation is to 'Cos it' back to your fundamental purpose in taking up the pen. Here's mine taken from my journal just after Christmas 2012.

"I want to be a writer because I am a writer because I think about it all the time because I've been obsessed with words and stories since I learned to read because words help me describe to myself what makes people tick. I want to do this because I'm curious about life."

You can see where 'Cos it' as a name for the game comes from. And if it's of interest, it's a trick actors use to identify the motivation for their characters.

So what's yours? Have a go!

Structuring your story

Structure is one aspect of fiction writing that seems to stump beginners. One of the principal anxieties is what to leave out. Well, less is more. Pare things down to a racing chassis - including nothing unnecessary or gratuitous - and build up from there. Here's a helpful tip - try using the Story Spine, famously devised by Ken Adams for Improvisation in the Theatre. Condense your observations of an event into:

1. Scene setting - eg 'Once upon a time'
2. Trigger point - eg 'Then one day'
3. Development - eg 'And then . . . 
4. Crisis - eg 'And then . . .'
5. Resolution - eg 'And ever since then . . .'
6. The Moral of the Story is . . .

And now, write on.

Hot news!

Not only publishers but agents are very scared at the moment. Self-publishing is now publishing (with no qualifier). And quality will be the driver.

At a Society of Authors (North) meeting, held yesterday in Manchester, these items constituted the good news in a talk given by Alison Baverstock, Professor of Publishing at Kingston University. I came away feeling that while much work lies ahead, the future is not so bleak as previously thought.

Research - and how to be disciplined!

Yours may be a contemporary novel critiquing modern society. You may be creating a world from archived materials and ephemera. But the chances are that, in the end, you’ll have so much well-researched information threatening to overwhelm you, you’ll be tempted to include it.
This overload is not desirable. In fact, avoiding it is essential if you want your reader to stay with you. So what do you do with this embarrassment of riches?
I posed the question to the massed ranks of the LinkedIn Historical Novelists and their replies were so useful, I’ve asked permission to share. Here are some of their suggestions.
First and foremost - when you’re writing a novel for an audience - you should remember you are doing so as an entertainer, not a teacher.
You may enjoy the chase – following research trail after trail. But if you think you’re going to lose yourself and your grip in this, you may need to hire a researcher. This professional will not only track down what you need to know but also create a filing system so you can find the information again.
A reader has a right to expect accuracy and if accuracy is the hallmark of your research, you can be proud. But the task may be complex. For example, if your characters are setting sail from Australia in the 1900s, you need to control the charts to establish the route, consider the weather conditions for a summer or winter voyage and establish an accurate time-line.

One of the major problems attached to too much research is The Dump. But how much is too much? And how do you know if you’ve included too much information? Don’t worry - you’ll recognise the Dump. It’ll take the form of a close-grained passage that advances neither the story nor your knowledge of the internal workings of a character and – during a re-edit – you’ll be tempted to skip it.  A good rule of thumb is: Never bore yourself or your reader!

But apt scientific fact or concise historical detail can add so much. And – with a light touch - you can avoid the Dump. Vary your approach. A straight account of fact may appear like a rock in the shallows. But you could write in bored teenagers responding to a parental account of an event. Or set women gossiping about it at a village well? Or a newspaper report? The possibilities are many and your writer’s craft will help you explore these  - while keeping your reader attentive.
So what do you do with any excess information? You could use it in a blog?  Or write another novel based on it?  Nothing – ever - need go to waste!