Tag: characters

Meeting Mike Gayle

~ JacciGoodingAuthor

On Wednesday I was lucky enough to be the in the audience for an evening of author talk with the very open and interesting multi-novellist author Mike Gayle, his editor Nick Sayers of Hodder and Stoughton, hosted by independent book shop Kenilworth Books which is based in Warwickshire, slap bang in the heart of the UK.
If you haven’t been to one yet but get the chance to attend an evening where an author talks about their process, their history, their long journey to publication, then I thoroughly encourage you to go. One of the most useful nuggets we came away with was the need for planning. No, not the sort of planning that involves three cups of coffee, a cuddle with the cat and a wander outside for ‘a bit of fresh air’ with a notebook doing absolutely nothing, but the sort of proper planning that involves – and get this wannabe authors – writing a two line synopsis for every chapter of your book. My friend said to me afterward of a masterpiece she is working on ‘that’ll be why I haven’t finished my book – I have no idea what’s going on.’
I’ve never thought about doing a chapter by chapter synopsis. I’ve done actual planning for an entire novel only to find the end result is nothing like I’d thought – nay planned – it would be. Odd how that happens. One person asked about ‘the muse’; does it ever strike? No, was Mr. Gayle’s definite answer. For muse read procrastination. True. But what if you’re not in the creative zone busy carving out characters that live in a whole new world created by you? Short answer – edit. Stop being all arty farty and get brutal instead. Get out your scalpel and trim trim trim trim. And I don’t mean your beard, my furry faced friend. Amputate your adjectives and ditch those descriptors! Squeeze out the fat and get to the muscle beneath, and when you’ve done that, you may see the bare bones of the story (I’m sensing a theme here…). It’s good to edit. But then of course, you have to know how to. There’s a big difference between changing your mind about something you’ve written ‘I don’t like that bit. I’ll change his jumper to blue’ and proper editing. How about not mentioning the jumper at all? Chekov’s Gun and all that. And that of course is where Nick Sayers’ insight was invaluable. How do you know what even needs editing? someone asked. Well, ‘you just do’, was the answer. Clunky dialogue, confusing/boring/pointless sentences/paragraphs/chapters will stand out to an expert, which is why they are experts at what they do. Midwives, really, helping the author deliver what the author thinks they want to deliver; what they had planned in those two-line chapter by chapter synopses.
And talking of which – I sent off some work to a very well known agency recently:
‘send both synopsis and the first 3000 words of your novel in one document only.’ Well that’s easy enough. I can do that. Edited the work in question, added it to the same document as the pain-stakingly created, written, revised, rewritten 3 page synopsis and pressed send. God they’ll think I’m brilliant.
And then I saw that little teeny weeny bit that said ‘send a synopsis of no more than a page…’

Should have edited properly, shouldn’t I.

Props and Prompts

~ JacciGoodingAuthor ~ 1 Comment

Fancy your chances in a short story competition? Here are eight ideas to help you find your inspiration.

Unsplash – a generously free-to-use website, showcasing some amazing photos taken by some superb photographers. They upload their work and as I say, generously put it out there for anyone to use free of charge. All they ask is that you give them a mention. How big-hearted is that?

Read winning short stories. See if you can work out why they are winners. Do you agree with the judges? If yes, as a writing exercise, write part-two of a winning story – just for your own benefit and practice. If no, re-write the story how you think it should read and then compare the two.

Let the sounds do the talking. Listen to some on-line recordings of the sea (YouTube) or thunder and rain (YouTube), or fishes having a chat. Maybe the gentle mechanical turnings of a windmill (YouTube again). Immerse yourself in sound and see where it takes you.

Picture prompts are always a good one – see number 1 above – but this time try an art gallery, museum or art shop – all of which are free. One of the best forms of art and expression has to be graffiti. There is one particular piece of urban art local to me which always makes me smile when I pass it – across a derelict For Sale sign advertising an abandoned plot of land, some enterprising young person has spray painted the word TWAT in silver paint. I love a good four letter word, and this particular piece of art always brings a smile to my face because a) it’s written in silver. Who has a random can of silver paint hanging around?! b) the use of language is short and to the point – but who Expressive.JPGare they talking to? Are they calling the billboard a twat?!  c) why bother in the first place when they could just as easily have scaled the fence onto the abandoned land and got up to all sorts of mischief instead. But they didn’t – they chose to write a word, which is better than an exaggerated cartoon version of the oft-use phallus young males are wont to draw. The fact that they didn’t should be applauded. I think it could only have made me smile more if they’d written the word Bum instead.

The website of your local theatre/arts centre. Have a look to see who’s coming to town and that may jolt the creative juices into flowing for you. I’m not in any way suggesting you plagiarise characters from shows or anything like that, but for example, there may be a singer song-writer-stand-up comedian playing sometime and she or he may spark the idea for a character – someone you may not have considered before.

Three unrelated props. A key, a stone and a bag of flour. Write them together somehow. Borrow from your friends and neighbours – this way the items will be unfamiliar to you. Likewise three inexpensive things from a charity shop; and old book, a toy, a vase. You can take them all back when you’ve finished.

Visit your local tip and take a couple of photos of stuff being thrown away. I once saw an entire, perfectly recyclable and sellable oak dresser being chucked away. I also saw a woman chuck her car keys away along with the rubbish that was in her hand. Funnily enough the council tip guy had a very long pole with a hook on one end for rescuing such inadvertent deposits. Comedy gold Mrs, comedy gold.

Best prop and prompt ever: cup of coffee, large cake, seat by the window. You know what comes next.

Read Write Research

~ JacciGoodingAuthor

Are you struggling with how to get going with your research? Here are a few tried and tested tips that may help you crack on with it. Not all infallible of course, but you have to start somewhere!

1 – and the most immediate and obvious – The Internet! – go anywhere in the world! Meet people, look at photos, read blogs – and this even applies if you’re setting your novel in a fictional town or village that just so happens is similar to the place you live or grew up in, or is perhaps a favourite holiday destination. If you have an idea for a novel, it would be daft not to use the internet – and especially so on a cold wet rainy day. Save the touchy feeling research for when the weather’s better. And sign up for every newsletter going – that way you get find out about free stuff, new stuff, odd stuff.
2 – my favourite – Listen. Or ear-wigg. Or eavesdrop – whatever you want to call it – listen to snippets of conversation and write them down. Anywhere there are people is good for this; in the winter, cafes, supermarkets, cinemas etc. In warmer weather, parks and public spaces. Be alert! And take a notebook and pen. Or dictate – whatever you do, don’t miss the moment. Often random comments can help create a character or even lead to a whole scene you hadn’t even thought about.
3 – Talk. And not always to yourself. Sure, dictate notes into your phone or whatever, but strike up conversation. Some people will give you a wide berth, others will be more than happy to chat. And it’s all research.
4 – Whenever you can, research through reading and observation, both of which are free. Use your library, bookstores and local cafes. In these quiet places you can read to your hearts content. When writing fiction it’s important to read in your genre so that you understand who essentially, you’re writing for. If you want to write crime for example, get ten crime novels from your library, pitch up in a cafe and get scan-reading. If after chapter two of a particular novel you know you don’t like it, make notes as to why – poor use of English? Too much English? Slang? Sentence structure? Knowing how you don’t want to write is great help in defining how you do.
5 – For historical fiction research you have to know your onions because you can absolutely bet your readership will, and they can be very unforgiving if you get it wrong. If you find two conflicting references to the same thing, seek out a third and if you’re still not sure, don’t include it.
6 – Logistics. You must get your logistics right. If you’re following characters a, b and c down a corridor and character d appears from behind a fake palm tree, then the narration immediately has that character following, the reader will want to know how character d suddenly got behind them all without anyone noticing. If you have people on bus seats, make sure the right person stands at the right time for it to make sense in the story.
7- Travel/ing – If you’re writing about a journey on a bus, for example – go on a bus! Feel the seats, smell the smells, see the litter, note the bus driver’s expression or sitting position. All these small details can bring a character to life.
8 – Local Attractions. You don’t have to go globetrotting of course – a trip to the local supermarket can be a deep well of research. Need to take a character to Istanbul or Poland just so they can have something to eat? Check out the international aisle and see what you can buy. Then buy it and take it home and eat it. Experience the taste and flavours. And keep a look out for exhibitions in your locality – museums for example, local art festivals, council-funded displays etc. Much can be found on your doorstep and much of it free.
9 – Getbackto. Write what you need to write and when editing highlight the areas that need clarification through research. Then on a different day, let’s call it A RESEARCH DAY, (snappy huh? yeah I thought so too) you can spend the whole day researching, rather than trying to write and research at the same time and getting so completely distracted that you, literally, lose the plot.
They way you research is personal to you – there’s no right or wrong way. We all learn differently. I know one writer who has different colour pens for each character and when he’s researching something they’d do, he only writes about them in that colour. So do what you will, your way. If you’re new to research it may help to create some questions for your characters to answer to keep you on track. Why doesn’t Edwin like tomato soup, for instance? Does it matter that he doesn’t? It might. Don’t worry about excluding something of course – not all research is relevant and if it’s delivered in clumpy spade-loads, your readers may soon feel they are being told something rather than absorbing it through the narrative and that can be very distracting.

So, done enough research for today? Crack on then!