Pat's comments
(member since Feb 02, 2009)
Pat's comments from the Writerpedia group.
(showing 1-20 of 35)
Hi Dawn,I too was convinced I could not write, Then I decided to seriously have a go. I sat at my computer and started a story - no plot, no characters, nothing. I just wrote.
I didn't worry about what I was writing and (for me this was important) I didn't read anything I wrote until I had finished the book - seriously. However, it takes a bit of discipline at times.
In the three years since I started I've written six novels, and they have been very well received by all who have read them (two were recently short-listed for an award, so they are not complete rubbish).
This technique flies in the face of all the 'usual' advice, but it works for me, and it may just work for you. The real point is to focus on telling the story, and not on the act of writing.
Cheers, Pat.
Or my writing to attract picky readers - but then I don't do introductions, I'm a lazy sod.
Kevin, if you want people to buy your work, you need to give them direction, and direction that they can relate to and will understand.
As writers, we instinctively dislike our work being labeled, but don't blame the publishers. You walk into a shop with 20,000 titles on the shelves and you want to find something to read...The labels are necessary, however much we dislike them.
And I disagree. A book is a book is a book, genre is simply a label. It's only significance is to act as a filter to enable potential readers sort through the quagmire of countless choices before them.And therein lies the problem. Using (some of) my own work as an example, they are Science fiction. I take a popular myth and try and construct a plausible hypothesis to explain it in real scientific terms.
However, these stories are written in the format of classic Murder Mysteries (with a romantic string). If I refer to them as Science Fiction, lovers of Murder Mysteries will not consider them, although they may well enjoy them. The reverse applies to readers of Science Fiction. If I call them both, everyone steers clear.
Yes, this is only a marketing issue, but it is a real one and as I said at the start, genre is only a marketing tool - nothing more.
Rowena,I've had a quick look at The Copyright Alliance and it looks very worthwhile. I like to sit on things fro a day or to before I sign up - time for those 'other' questions to surface.
A couple of points, just for the record: the link you've provided doesn't seem to work (not a biggy. Secondly, membership is not free - it's US$17.00 for an writer (very reasonable, however) and finally, although this is really of no significance (particularly to me, as it is my interests in the States that are probably most at risk and most difficult to defend) but should be noted , it is very much an American orientated organisation.
Firstly, I try and tell a gripping tale - short, succinct and fast moving, with plenty of drama and a smattering of romance. My stories, regardless of body-count, tend to be ultimately positive.What I write is nominally 'hard sci-fi' and I am very particular that the science - while not dominating the story, is sound (95% fact and 5% plausible is my mantra). In the questions I raise, I always strive to leave the reader with something to ponder.
Have a look at http://whitakerbooks.wordpress.com or you can read three of them in serialised form, free, at http://www.gather.com/viewArticle.jsp?ar...
Rowena, Gather does no more that state that copyright remains the exclusive property of the author. This does not stop someone pinching the book, but helps if anyone tries to claim the right to do so.My own experience of e-book sales is that I sell so few piracy is hardly a major concern - more of an annoyance. Print piracy would be, but until I'm a best seller, it is hard to imagine anyone taking the chance.
That said, I'm of to look at what the copyright alliance as you suggest - thanks for that.
Pat.
I think the piracy issue is just something we have to live with.In my case, I self-publish (print and e-book), and hold all the copyrights, plus I have serialised my books on a social networking site (Gather) which protects the copyright on all posted work.
So someone can still steal it - but it is just that, theft - you are not relinquishing any copyright.
I can't really answer that. I don't seem to lose them (or I've lost them so thoroughly I don't know they're gone). It's odd really, because I don't have a tidy mind.Then I suppose if I did, I'd make all the notes and lists others seem to do. I guess I don't simply because I can't. As I said before, I don't know where the story is going or who will be involved.
All that said, I've nearly finished my sixth novel and so far it's worked, but that is not to say I won't come crashing down in a heap on number seven.
If you wake up one day to the (very) distant sound of sobbing, you'll know what's happened.
I guess this is because I don't have any idea of who the characters are or what they are like when I start. With a technique like mine they just appear when needed (and sometimes when they're most definitely not needed) and their characters develop of their own accord as the story progresses.My writing style is such that there is little detailed description, other than required by the plot. I work on the basis that, put simply, if a character enters a forest, I don't need to describe it - the reader will automatically form an image of it in their own minds. The fact that three readers might imagine three different forests is of no matter, nor do they need to imagine the same forest I do.
It is only when there is something specific about the forest, some detail, that is pertinent to the story, will I put the reader on course by describing it.
No, not really. I once had a moment of confusion when proofing a finished work, but it turned out I'd simply changed a character's name half-way through.I also had a story with two characters, Sarah and Susan, and I found I'd occasionally used the wrong name - but all easily fixed.
Sometimes I need to tweek the time-lines a bit, where I haven't allowed a realist period between events (once a journalist started writing a book and took it to his publisher three days later - oh! don't you just wish!)
For what it's worth, I do none of the above.I start with an idea. Not an idea for a story, but an abstract idea. For example, with my book Mindset I had the idea that telepathic societies would logically be extremely reactionary, rather than advanced and enlightened as usually portrayed (think about it).
Then I just start writing. No plot notes, character bios, nothing. I also don't read anything I've written until the story is finished.
Seems to work for me, and it prevents all the agonising that people seem to go through trying to get started.
North, south, east and west are directions, so there really isn't one. However, if you are at the North Pole, very direction is south - at the South Pole the opposite. Any other point on the globe has a north south east and west.
My reaction would be to say I'd explain my age when they explained their parentage - but that's probably not helpful.
Is my writing coloured by my personality, by my experiences? Of course it is. Are my stories based on these same traits and experiences? Absolutely not!Do I say this to appear literary? I don't considered my work literary at all, I aspire to tell stories, nothing more, and as a writer be invisible to the reader.
And 'truth' is the most abused (and possibly contradictory) word in the English language, even 'natural' doesn't come close.
Pat.
M.L. wrote: "Well, for my two cents, I would say explore your darker half, embrace it, harness it to propel yourself toward the light. One thing I've learned is that the journey you take in becoming a writer is..."I have no doubt, Mari, that you walked a difficult road, no doubt that your writing about it (albeit in the abstract) helped you come to terms with it and I'm more than happy to assume that the result was a very good book. But the contention that this is what a person must do to be a good writer, I reject totally.
Many, many books are written that way - personal experience ones (I believe that are now confusingly referred to as 'autobiographical fiction') but they predicate an introverted and reactionary society. It is those who imagine what isn't, who speculate on what it is like to experience things outside human experience, who lead us forward.
And it is those writers who allow us to escape for a while from the constraints of our own existence. Please don't dismiss them so easily.
Your post caused me to reflect. As would-be writers we are always told we should dig inside ourselves to find our stories - build on our life experiences.I have never heeded this advice, my story-telling allows me to escape from my own limitations and those of my circumstances, and be anything I want to be.
In the same way, rather than try and seal off the darker corners of your mind, just leave them behind. Use your writing to step out of your life for a while.
Just as your imagination can bring the world down upon you, it can also enable you to escape.
Hi all,I'm currently posting my first novel in serialised form here. It's about half way now, and I post section every day, but I've only just come across this place.
It's a story that uses a Murder Mystery framework to carry a Science Fiction idea (if that makes sense)
All feedback welcome.
Kathy-diane wrote: "This might sound weird, but its always the novel I'm currently starting. I have an idea that catches fire, but forever experience the niggling worry over whether I'll be able to carry it the long ..."I'm the opposite. I have an idea and I can't wait to get started (I do, because I never work on two things at once). I just launch straight in. It is always about a quarter of the way through, when that initial excitement has worn off, that all the same doubts you experience come crashing in. About the half-way mark they fade and I settle in to a steady rhythm.
Pat Whitaker http://whitakerbooks.wordpress.com
