Allison Symes's Blog, page 7

Revisiting The World of Jeeves and Wooster

Having read a lot of lovely non-fiction recently on Kindle and in paperback, it was time to get back to fiction.

I’ve just finished re-reading the marvellous P.G. Wodehouse: A Life In Letters so it was obvious to me next up on my reading list would be his most famous creations, Jeeves and Wooster.

Am so glad to be reading their stories again. Wodehouse’s gift with words is amazing and I struggle at times not to laugh out loud. I only try to resist simply because I read at bedtime and don’t want to disturb anyone. Maybe Wodehouse’s work should come with a warning here!

I also thought Jeeves and Wooster would be the perfect summertime read - I am right on that one.

If you haven’t read any, do check them out. They are so funny and the way Wodehouse plays with the English language is sublime.

Spoofs

I’ve recently watched a wonderful play (Bleak Expectations) based on the works on Dickens, of course. The show itself was based on a Radio 4 comedy from many years ago and that and the play are written by the same man.

There were many wonderful references to lines by Dickens, book titles etc in the play, which I loved. It was great fun spotting them!

But this led to me thinking about spoofs in general. Many are based on books - Bored of the Rings, anyone? (There is also A Midsummer Nightmare out there).

What I hope is the case here is the spoof comes about as a result of a genuine love for the author/books being spoofed. That is definitely the case with Bleak Expectations and if you get the chance to hear the radio series or go and see the play I heartily recommend it. Loads of laughs too!

I wonder if any of these spoofs have led to people discovering the authors of the original works? I would like to think so.

One of my favourite moments from the long running Radio Four series, I‘m Sorry I Haven’t a Clue is when they have a books round and usually the players have to add a word to the title or take a word away to come up with a totally different book. I’ve often thought some of the titles they come up with for this would make excellent spoofs.

A well done spoof then, I think, can add to the pleasure of reading in general. Certainly Bleak Expectationshas reminded me of Dickens’ titles I need to check out again!

Children's Books

I have a very soft spot indeed for children’s books. My late mother encouraged reading and a love of stories from an early age, something I’ve always appreciated.

I have fond memories of children’s classics such as mBlack Beauty, the Famous Five, Heidi, and, of course, my beloved fairytales.

Being hooked on red reading early on encouraged my development into reading adult books. No such thing as a YA category in my day - I would’ve loved it and I think it is a superb idea.

I collected the works of Agatha Christie via Odhams Book Club (remember them, anyone?) and still have these now.

But without my love of reading the children’s books, would I have gone on to read the Queen of Crime? I doubt it.

Someone has to hook you into reading in the first place and this is where the children’s authors come in. It has long been a belief of mine that all writers of books for adults owe a huge debt to the children’s writers. They do grow our audience for us.

It was a great joy, when I became a parent, to select children’s books and, later, to see my child pick their own. (That’s a good thing to encourage too).

I was especially fond of the children’s treasuries of stories (as my child was) precisely because there were lots of tales to dip into. They are the perfect books for that.

Each generation needs its children’s writers. It also needs its adult writers. I don’t know if any survey has ever been done on this but it would not surprise me much if it was found 90% + of all readers say they owe their love of reading to loving books as a child.

Reading - An Acrostic

R = Read widely and well - every writer is advised to do this but why leave it just to writers?

E = Enjoy a wide range of genres and discover the wonderful world of non-fiction.

A= Authors cross all ages and genres in their work so why not discover their crated worlds?

D = Discovering a genre and/or writer new to you, whose work you like, is a great joy.

I = Imagination, inspiration, intricate plots, immense and amazing characters - what’s not to like?

N = Novels, novellas, short story and flash fiction collections - why not try them all?

G = Gives you good opportunities to read contemporary works as well as the classics.

Books Of Letters

I love books of letters. I have books of letters by Evelyn Waugh (his own and those he exchanged with Nancy Mitford) and P.G. Wodehouse on my shelves (real and electronic). Yes, the letters do shed insights into the writing life which are fascinating and useful.

I also have a book of letters by Jane Austen and I must finish reading that so this post has proved useful in reminding me to do so!

I do so wish Agatha Christie had done this though. Am sure her letters would have been insightful. Having said that her The Moving Finger does have its plot focus around a string of poison pen letters so she brought them into her fiction at least!

What I like about letters are they do show something of the writer and the recipient. I’ve made use of this as a wiring technique in my Punish The Innocent (From Light to Dark and Back Again).

Good fun to do and it makes for a freshing change of story format but one I think best done sparingly. You do have to have strong characters to carry this off successfully.

Maybe that is why more writers haven’t produced books of their letters. They would rather get their characters to show you something of themselves rather than of the writers themselves.

What do you think?

Story Influences

One aspect to reading I love is when I think I can spot which stories have influenced the writer.

Sometimes it is obvious to spot these. (This is especially true for the well done spoof). Sometimes the influence is portrayed in a subtle manner (and I always feel a bit pleased with myself when I spot this type).

Stories do influence us even if we’re not always conscious of it. My love of fairytales means I know I will expect justice to be done in some way (and that applies to most crime fiction too).

I pick up on the Rule of Three in all manner of books and stories thanks to what I have learned from fairytales. Something happens twice. Something happens with a change on the third occasion and that change usually leads to the traditional happy ever after ending in fairytales.

Notice I say usually there. My first reading of The Little Mermaid by Hans Christen Andersen came as a shock precisely because it didn’t follow what, by then, I had come to see as the usual pattern.

Andersen’s ending of this tale is appropriate for the character as he has portrayed her (which is something else I’ve picked on subconsciously thanks to my love of reading. Naturally I ensure the endings I create for my characters are appropriate to them as I have portrayed them).

So think about what books you love. What influence have they had on you? It may well be more than you thought, especially if you're a writer too.

Mixed Genres

Do you enjoy books which mix genres? I do.

I’m a huge fan of the Discworld series from the much missed Sir Terry Pratchett.

The Sam Vimes novels in that series cross fantasy with crime stories and successfully meet the needs of both genres here. They work as stand alone crime novels too. Highly recommend Men At Arms and Feet of Clay in particular here. Really good detection tales.

I see the mixing of genres as an inevitable thing. Why? Because I’m focused on whether or not I care for the characters. I’m focused on finding out what happens to said characters.

If they’re in a fantasy world I want to find out how that changes what the characters do. They will have challenges to face in that world they wouldn’t have in a non-fantasy world. I want to see how that plays out.

Also a character doesn’t live in a vacuum, any more than we do, so their setting is bound to have a bearing on their stories.

It has been said the Harry Potter stories cross boarding school tales with the magical world. Well, why not? Why shouldn’t a world like that have its own education system? To me, it would be odd if there wasn’t something like that. Therefore it makes sense to have stories based on this premise.

So mixing genres then? No problem at all for me. I find it gives me an ever wider choice of books to read and I’m all for that too.

Short Form Collections

I read a number of short form collections because (a) I love them and (b) I’ve contributed to many of them in my time and still do, the most recent being the hot-off-the-presses The Best of CafeLit 13.

Also my flash fiction collections, From Light To Dark and Back Again and Tripping The Flash Fantastic, come into this category too.

Short stories are fantastic for dipping into. They’re also great for helping me make up my mind what longer form work I want to read next.

I also like to ensure I have a good reading diet by reading novels, short stories, flash, magazines, ebooks etc. I’ve never seen the point of limiting yourself to just reading in one category!

But the advantage of the short form, flash or standard length short story, is in giving a reader an impact that much more quickly. For twist in the tail stories, you get to the twist more quickly too. I like that.

Stories to Remember

I write this blog during the week where we remembered the 80th anniversary of D-Day. There are stories we really should remember, whether they are in book form, or are in the form of personal testimonies, many of which were heard/seen on the media this week from surviving veterans.

I’ve recently read Double Cross by Ben Macintyre. This tells the true stories of the D-Day spies who were used to deceive Hitler. A great read and one I’m happy to recommend.

I also recommend the same author’s Operation Mincemeat, which is the true story of “the man who never was”.

The depth of research in books like these is incredible, rightly so, but the purpose of these books is to show the background to the history we know and to shed light on things which, at the time, rightly had to be kept quiet.

I’ve developed a real love for non-fiction books like these in recent years. My only regret is not discovering them sooner!

I do like the development in non-fiction using some of the techniques of fiction to get wonderful information across to readers in an entertaining way. History, and factual books generally, do not have to be boring!

The Perfect Ending

Is there such a thing as the perfect ending to any story?

The only reason I’m not sure about this is because all writers are human and we’re all fallible.

No perfect writer = no perfect writing.

I know, looking back on my older stories, I can see ways of improving them thanks to things I’ve learned about writing craft and technique since that time. BUT you can improve on what you do.

I can look back at those stories and know they were the best I could do at that time. So am reasonably pleased with them but am more pleased with improvements I have made since that time. Writing is always a case of developing your craft, I think.

For stories by other writers, what I look for is an appropriate ending for their characters’ stories. Yes, sometimes that ending can be ambiguous.

(After all, tomorrow is another day from Gone With The Wind is a good example of that kind of ending). But it should be appropriate to all that has come before and as long as it has done that, I’m happy.