Deborah Swift's Blog, page 50

Tuesday Tip - Add complexity

Your story should be layered, just like life. There is no life-story that is not intersected by hundreds, if not thousands, of other life stories. All of these characters will have their own inter-relationships, but more importantly all will have their own imaginative life.
In writing fiction it is easy to forget that the character also has an imagination, perhaps a fictional life or an attachment to a certain story. To make a character complex and nuanced, we must tap into their imaginations as well as our own. I am just reading Essie Fox's The Somnambulist. She does this really well, the life that Phoebe's Aunt Cissy lives is more to do with what her imagination rests on, than it is to do with her mundane life.

Likewise, when I was writing "The Gilded Lily" the story of "Snow White and Rose Red" had profoundly affected the way the sisters felt they should behave towards each other, providing an ideal which both struggled to maintain.

So delve into your characters imaginations. What might they fantasize about, what key stories have they heard, which book has affected them so much it has changed their life?

Paperback Writer

Paperback writer
Dear Sir or Madam, will you read my book? It took me years to write, will you take a look? Based on a novel by a man named Lear, And I need a job, so I want to be a paperback writer, Paperback writer. It's the dirty story of a dirty man, And his clinging wife doesn't understand. His son is working for the Daily Mail, It's a steady job, but he wants to be a paperback writer, Paperback writer. Paperback writer.

It's a thousand pages, give or take a few, I'll be writing more in a week or two. I can make it longer if you like the style, I can change it round and I want to be a paperback writer, Paperback writer.

If you really like it you can have the rights, It could make a million for you overnight. If you must return it, you can send it here, But I need a break and I want to be a paperback writer, Paperback writer. Paperback writer, Paperback writer - Paperback writer, Paperback writer - Paperback writer.




Recorded: April 13, 1966 at Abbey Road, London, England
The Beatles - John Lennon - rhythm guitar, background vocals,Paul McCartney - lead vocal, bass guitar,George Harrison - lead guitar, background vocal,Ringo Starr - drums

Who would have thought it, the paperback of The Lady's Slipper is now available in some online stores. I haven't yet received my copies, but when I do I will be able to stop humming this tune at last!
Looking online I was surprised to see that this song has been ascribed various deeper meanings. According to one online forum it is a metaphor for prostitution - pertinent because the Beatles were being pressurized by their label and felt they were about to lose control over their product.



As writers if our books sell well we are also subject to market pressures to produce more of the "winning formula". If they don't sell well then we are perhaps advised to give up what we want to do in favour of following the example of other best-selling writers. What I particularly admire about the Beatles is the way they managed to re-invent themselves, shift and evolve with their current interests and yet still produce work of such enduring quality that not only sold in millions, but has remained iconic even now.

The Tuesday Tip - A Visual Narrative

If I'm ever stuck in my work in progress, or can't seem to generate enthusiasm to write, I go to Google and type in Narrative Painting as one of the keywords, and the period I'm interested in - in my case the 17th century. Trying it today, some of the first random images to come up were these:

The work above is by Vermeer, this one by the Flemish painter Frans Snyders.

By writing around the character I see - a draughtsman or maybe a geometer looking out of the window, his attention caught by ....? Well what? Let your imagination supply the answer. I am particularly taken with the oriental rug which pehaps came from one of the places he is mapping. Has it just arrived? Is that why it is draped in the foreground like that? Where will it go next?
The second picture - well, what a variety of fish. In a world where mostly I see cod and haddock, and the occasional tuna sandwich, this is an eye-opener. Most of it looks as though it is writhingly alive. And what is that in the bottom left? An otter? My market scene has just taken on fresh vigour!

Sometimes all the imagination needs is a little stimulus - a prod, if you like. Questions are what oil our creative faculties, as it is human nature to want to resolve questions. Google Images supplies you with all the questions about your period that you need. It is at our fingertips, and is such a rich resource, especially for those writing historical fiction. Most writers have a visual narrative running in their heads which needs feeding. If the imagination is hungry, then go and feed it!

The Long and the Short of it

Two recommended books from my recently read pile - one very short, (about109 pages, although it is so short the pages aren't numbered) the other much longer, 410 packed pages.

First - the short one.

Sum - Tales from the Afterlives by David Eagleman

This is one of those books I long to give to any narrow-minded, fundamentalist bigot, with a fixed view of God and the cosmos. But I am fairly sure that there won't be any reading this blog, so it is a good job that it is also a mind-expanding read for the rest of us too.

The book posits various afterlives as a series of short stories. What is genius about it is that it suggests what we might perceive as a good idea for an afterlife, but these nirvanas quickly reverse into making us think about, and appreciate, what we already have right here, right now.

For me it felt like opening the curtains and letting great gusts of fresh air into the room. Eagleman is a neuroscientist, but don't let that put you off - here is inventive spiritual questioning at its most sane.

Now, the long one.

The Redemption of Alexander Seaton by Shona McLean.

Dark, grisly,stuffed full of historical detail and the dour dialogue of 17th century Scotland, this is a thriller to read on a cold night with the wind howling outside and rain lashing at the windows.

Alexander Seaton, a failed minister with a past, stumbles upon a murder. In pursuit of the killer and his own redemption he embarks upon a series of travels which take him through the terrors of the witch-hunt, the then-current obsession with Papists, and an encounter with his own demons.

Richly atmospheric, this is not a read for someone looking for a fast-moving plot, although there is plenty of detail to hold the interest. The characters, especially the unlikeable, bitter Alexander seep into the mind somehow, and this makes the final denoument gripping and satisfying.

Lakes Writers School

Two of Cumbria's top writers – the award-winning children's writer Janni Howker and novelist Sarah Hall – will be running workshops at the next Lakes Writers School course, 16-20 May 2011. They will be teaching on:
The Essential Elements of Creative Writing, including Conquering Point of View, The Joy of Telling the Truth, and The Power of the First Person Narrative.

Other speakers on the course include Cumbrian poet Angela Butler, ghostwriter Andrew Chamberlain and commissioning editor Ali Hull.
Any local authors who want to improve their creative skills are welcome to come along, either on a residential basis or as day visitors. The course, which has been running twice a year since 2003, aims to help writers at all stages, from beginners through to published authors. It takes place at Lands End, Watermillock. For more information, go to http://www.lakesschool.com/

For more information on the course, phone Ali Hull on 07977 670868 or Mark Finnie on 07917631785

Note for editors – to talk to the course organisers, phone Ali Hull on the above number or Mark Finnie on 01768 863331

The Tuesday Tip - the reader loves to snoop

Who doesn't love a secret?
Create interesting characters by giving them a secret or intrigue that they don't want people to know about. Characters need skeletons in the closet, buried emotional wounds, hidden needs and shameful pasts. These are what keeps the reader engaged, creating tension and an urge to delve deeper into the characters background and personality.

A book is a wonderful excuse to be nosy and snoop in a way that is unacceptable in everyday life. It is the one thing a book can offer that real life does not – we can probe the underlying motivations of fictional characters in a way we dare not attempt with our real-life acquaintances, friends or lovers.

Incomers 1592

At the end of the 16th century London had become such a popular place to live that Elizabeth banned any more building.

The Act of 1592 says there are
"great Mischiefes and Inconveniences" from the habit of dividing up houses "into several Tenements or Dwellings". Because of this overpopulation it was hard to find food or fuel - after all coal had to be brought in by boat from elsewere, and there were few trees left standing. The document says

"great Infection of Sickness and dearth of Victuals and Fuel hath growen and ensued."



Elizabeth was also concerned about the kind of incomers that were making their way to the city.

"Many idle vagrant and wicked Persons have harboured themselves there and divers remote places of the Realme have been disappointed of Workmen and dispeopled." 

The solution? Just as we are preserving the countryside with our Green Belt laws, a law was passed forbidding any more building 

"That noe person (shall) henceforth make and erect any newe Building or Buildings House or Houses for Habitation or dwelling within either of the said cities [of London and Westminster] or within three miles of any of the Gates."


Of course the law had no effect whatever, and by the time of the Restoration, the city had stretched to Piccadilly and beyond.

Which is just as well, for by the time my two incomers - Sadie and Ella Appleby from Westmorland - arrive in 1661, it is a veritable warren of tenements and rookeries, alleyways and ginnels. The Gilded Lily tells how the sisters hope they will be able to hide from their pursuers. But the London underworld is full of beggars and ne'er-do-wells who will sell their soul for a penny, and they soon find there is no-one they can trust.

Not even each other.

The Tuesday Tip - The Absence of Things

At Art College I remember we did the lovely standard exercise where we drew the spaces around an object. This then revealed the object more clearly than drawing the outline of the thing itself, precisely because it by-passed the preconceptions we might already have about the object's shape. The Chinese philosophers and Zen calligraphers urge us to pay attention to what is missing,
Thirty spokes on a cartwheel
Go towards the hub that is the centre
- but look, there is nothing at the centre
and that is precisely why it works!

If you mould a cup you have to make a hollow:
It is the emptiness within it that makes it useful.

In a house or room it is the empty spaces
-the doors, the windows that make it useable.

They all use what they are made of
to do what they do,

but without their nothingness they would be nothing.

Tao Te Ching - Man-Ho Kwok, Jay Ramsay, Martin Palmer Translation.

Sometimes it is more effective to describe something in terms of what is not there than in terms of what is. A setting could be described in terms of what is not there instead of what is. This is particularly effective with describing characters too; what is missing from their personalities can be what makes them what they are. Describing what is absent taps into the lack that lies at the heart of us, and so draws the reader in.

A greener clean

When I was researching The Lady's Slipper I came across a reference to people cleaning pewter in the 17th century with Goosegrass. The plant was apparently very common in this area, and used in vast quantities. Try as I might I could not see much of it in the hedgerows and concluded it must sadly be rarer now in these parts than it was back then - until just this week.
I have inherited a beautiful garden from the previous owners of my house, full of beautiful tulips and apple blossom. We have had sunny weather the last few weeks so I have taken to weeding. And which is the most common weed in my garden? Yes, Goosegrass. It's everywhere, and as fast as I pull it up, the more of it sprouts.
We recently found an old pewter tankard in the loft which I wanted to keep out on display as it lists all the Kings and Queens of England from Alfred the Great (871 - 904) right up to Elizabeth II (1952 -) -nearly 60 of them! It was looking a bit old and tarnished so I thought I'd better try out the pewter polishing the old way. So here is a picture of the tankard before.......and after! The 17th century folk must have been at it for hours, because I polished quite vigorously and I have to say the Goosegrass didn't do much except disintegrate and make my fingers green. I can imagine Ella the maid's frustration at the amount of effort this might take!
It did give me an interesting sense of how much longer people must have taken over their daily chores though in those days, and led me to take a little more time in peeling the potatoes today by taking the whole bowl into the garden so I could take my time and enjoy the view - rampant Goosegrass and all.
You might know goosegrass by another name  - Cleavers, Clithers, Robin run-in-the-grass, Burweed, Loveman, Mutton chops, Clite, Clide, Clitheren, and Goosebill, from the sharp, serrated leaves, like the rough-edged mandibles of a goose. In the 19th century Goosegrass used to be known by the nickname of Beggar's lice, from clinging closely to the garments of passers by and because the small burs resemble these creatures. It is also known to some as Harriff, or, Erriff, from the Anglo-Saxon "hedge rife," a taxgather, or robber, because it plucks the wool from the sheep as they pass too. 
Below - cleaning pots and pans in 17th century Holland - can't spot any Goosegrass here, and they both look quite cheerful, in fact the woman on the right looks like she might be singing as she works. Notice the fine ladies in the backgound, gossiping away whilst the work goes on.

The bookshop from heaven

Welcome SheWriters from the blog hop.

I have recently moved house to a lovely historic village, and our nearest small town is only five minutes drive away. Having spent a few weeks heaving boxes of books and then trying to find shelf-space for them all, I vowed to buy less books.

No sooner had I said this than I went to the supermarket in our local town and almost next door was this  - Aargh! the lovely Carnforth bookshop with its 14 higgledy-piggledy rooms of 100,000 second hand books! As you can see, the door is wide open, and who could resist? When I got inside I found there is coffee on the boil and a downstairs section with new books. You can even buy the gift-wrap and cards if you want to buy a book as a present, or for the musical - indulge in reams of sheet music.

Needless to say, I was in there more than an hour (the appropriate for Lent idea of "shall I try giving up buying books" forgotten) and I came out with three books. As an antidote to internet buying, it is a true bookaholic's browsing experience. Particularly delightful is a room of hardback fiction all at £1.

Though I have to say the writer in me is reluctant to buy second hand as I know how much work goes into a book and how the royalties from it stack up, but I forgive the Carnforth bookshop as it has a very good section of new fiction that you come to first before going upstairs to the used books.

As a reader of course I can't resist cheap second hand books, and the smell of leather and old paper. And the charm of exploring narrow stairways and inter-connecting rooms all stacked floor-to-ceiling with mostly one-offs.

Guess I'll be needing a few more shelves.
And if you are searching for a rare out of print book, why not try them www.carnforthbooks.co.uk