T.S. Sharp's Blog, page 8

Creative Writing Course – Week #10

Week 10, or the second class of the second term, of my writing course. This week we were asked what we plan to do, or have done, to Chapter 1 in light of the marking and comments it received at the end of the first term. We went around the group talking about any issues we had with what we had read about our work, and how it impacted any re-writing we might do.

For my part, I was happy with the suggested edits and tightening of the prose, but one of the suggestions was about inserting a prologue to give chapter 1 more of a set-up. I'm not sure about this, more because I don't know how to approach it rather than having a stylistic aversion to it. I also added a few more lines of dialogue to the end of the first chapter, as it was a bit too much of a cliff-hanger apparently. I'm happy with what I added, but ultimately I'm still wrestling with what to add in and what to leave out. Holding stuff back is just as important as writing it down, I've found. Maybe I'm more inclined to hold stuff back. I keep thinking, 'well, if this is under-explored or possibly confusing, no matter, it's all cleared up later on…' This is more to do with fact that the current project is a crime noir thriller, so I'm apt to keep stuff mysterious, but it's hard to maintain.

This week's class also included a little written exercise to work on clarity of description. We were given about 7 minutes to write about a market stall in as much detail as we felt necessary. No other details or guidelines were given. Here's mine, transcribed from my hurried scribbling from the night;

~~

The rain pattered on the red and white stripey awning overhead, protecting Mary from an incessant downpour that besieged the town. The weather kept trade away. Business was slow for her fruit and veg stall, it had been all year, and the rain made it feel ten times worse. She huddled behind the stand of tomatoes and lettuces, apples and oranges; great blocks of primary colours providing the only splashes of brightness in a market square sodden and desolate.

Fingerless gloves, almost standard-issue for market traders, kept Mary's hands warm, but her feet had gone numb. When the pace of the rain picked up and gusts of wind pulled at the tarps, banter between the stall holders died, much like the trade on a wet Wednesday in a provincial market town.

Everyone then read their pieces out. Despite us all having the same setting it was really interesting to see the different takes on the same subject. Without it being specified by the tutor, each extract had an element of story woven into it, despite the original instruction being about a market stall. There was something intriguing about each one that drew a reader/listener into it beyond the market stall itself.

The next part of the class moved onto talking about novel synopsis. Or should that be synopsi? Synopses doesn't sound right… Anyway, we looked at an example of a synopsis submitted to a small publisher to see how a 100,000+ word novel has to be condensed into a few hundred words.This particular one had an interesting structure in that the publisher specified how the synopsis should be presented to them for submission. They wanted a synopsis breakdown in no more than 650 words, then the same thing in 50 words, and then finally, in one single sentence. The last part amounted to the marketing by-line you see on the front of novels in a bookshop.

I've done a synopsis for my completed novel, but as it has never been submitted so I've never devoted much time to this aspect. This will be the task to work on before next week's class; compose a one and a half page synopsis of our current projects. This might be tricky, as I don't really have a fully-formed concept of  'the ending' – but maybe this process will force it out. If not, I'll just write '…and it was all a dream'.

Creative Writing Course – Week #9

Week 9 is the first week of the second term of my creative writing course. To recap, the three term course is split up like this; Term 1 – Chapter 1. Term 2 – Chapter 2. Term 3 – Chapter 3. Each chapter is worked on over a term and then handed in at the end, marked and then returned the following term.

So this week I got my first chapter back from the tutors, all marked and complete with editing suggestions. To cut to the chase – I got a 2:1. I'm quite happy with that, not sure what I was expecting really. In a way it's a bit of an odd experience to have a piece of creative writing marked so forensicly, but that's the nature of a course like this – there has to be some kind of benchmarking.

Once we'd all absorbed our grades and comments, the course re-started with a round-up of some of the things we needed to be aware of collectively. These were pitfalls some or all of us had made, aspects to look out for and improve on etc.

Clarity Of Meaning – Try to be simple, effective and direct in your writing. Regular use of a dictionary and thesaurus can help immensely.
Lack of Incident or Over-description – Avoid passages that don't inform the reader or move the plot on. Similarly, lingering over description can have the same effect of not progressing the narrative. Overly descriptive prose can cause the reader to skim read or skip sections of your writing. As readers, we've all done it.
Clichés – Try to avoid the use of clichés. Often these are down knowingly in the sense that it will be recognisable to the reader, but these should also be avoided. Over-used phrases and descriptions can betray a lack of imagination in a writer.
Stilted, Boring or Unrealistic Dialogue – If dialogue between characters reads badly to the reader, they won't believe in your characters, which will eject them straight out of the text. For writing set in a particular location, the dialogue has to befit the people speaking, so keeping it consistent to country/region/era/dialect is important.
Show Not Tell – Put your reader into the scene with the characters. Passing off great sections of action by informing instead of describing the acts is a good way to miss out on pulling the reader into your work.

Time to go and re-read my work for any signs of the above!

We had to hand in a first draft of chapter 2 for a look-over by the tutors. I'd written mine some time back, but I'm still unsure of the direction I want it to go in, or if I should switch chapter 3 into chapter 2. Hopefully comments back on it next week will help me decide. I'm temped to do the switch around so that I can show a constrast in two of the main characters, and also so that I can put on display another style of writing, to see what kind of reception it gets. We shall see.

As we'd all shared large chunks of our first chapters with each other in the class, we went around the room and discussed what we were intending to achieve in chapter 2. This type of discussion is almost like group therapy, your thoughts and motivations for writing shared with about 15 other people. It was also suggested that we hear some readings of our 2nd chapters next week too, so that should be interesting.

As for me, it's back to editing parts of chapter 1 and no doubt making changes to subsequent chapters.

Fantasy Football Writing – Gameweek 21

This weekend, or gameweek 21 as the Fantasy Football League has it, saw my first article published for the Fantasy Football Cheat website. I am providing the website with a weekly wrap-up of the games and how they relate to fantasy football managers.

I found myself doing this after I fired off a jokey email to the site in response to a call for writers to help run it. I was given the task of writing a round-up of the games and my first week's effort was this 1,100+ word effort;

http://www.fantasyfootballcheat.co.uk/2012/01/16/gameweek-21-weekend-wrap-up/

I enjoyed writing it because essentially it was just a slightly more articulate version of the rantings I usually spout to other managers of fantasy football teams. The piece went online at about 1am UK time in order to catch the traffic from the Far East and Australia and true to form one of the first responses was from an Australian FF addict, congratulating me on the article. It seems the site has a large and very vociferous following, all clamouring for the latest tips and info on the Premier league.  For better or worse, they seem to have mistaken me for someone in the know, along with other admin staff and regular pundits. It seems to be a friendly and active community and as yet I haven't seen any of the petty rivalries that often emerge when it comes to the tribal nature of football.

To clarify, there is no actual 'cheat' on the Fantasy Football Cheat website, it's more of a meeting place for other FF addicts. Managers visit the site to get insights into possible strategies and transfers. I just happen to have found myself in a position of apparent authority. One look at my team and its performance so far this season will tell you otherwise. (I'm currently in 246th place in the official Fantasy Football Cheat league – although I am unsure of how many teams are in it, as the pages go on and on…) Hopefully as well as the weekly wrap-ups I can provide other articles for the site.

The site gets thousands of visits and according to the owner they come from over 100 different countries, so it's good to think that a great deal of people will be reading my work every week until the end of the season.  It looks like this will form part of my Sunday night routine from now until May sometime; interpreting events on the pitch into some form of analysis for virtual football teams. I look forward to it.

On The Death Of Bookshops

Much has been said about the threats facing indepedent bookshops and book chains, so I thought I'd offer my take on the issue.

Borders is no more. Waterstones narrowly avoided bankruptcy by being sold by HMV to a Russian oligarch for £53m. Local independent bookshops wither on the vine under the perfect storm of economic pressures and the popularity of ebooks. While I don't want to see independents or chainstores go out of business I acknowledge that I am part of the problem in that I buy the vast majority of my books online, and I can see myself buying more ebooks over time. I'm not sure they'll actually die out altogether, but they'll certainly struggle.

While I was browsing (but not actually buying anything) in an otherwise empty local bookshop during the week I overheard the following conversation between the manager of the shop and a rather refined looking senior citizen lady:

Manager; Can I help you?

Customer; Yes, I'm looking for something for my grandaughter. She recently passed a cello exam and I wanted to give her a little something as a 'well done' gift.

Manager; OK, did you have anything in mind?

Customer; No, not really.

Manager; How about The Cellist of Sarajevo by Steven Galloway? Do you think she'd like that?

Customer; Maybe…

They go across to the fiction section to hunt out the book. Whilst there the manager asks her if she wants something specifically to do with the cello, or just a general present, to which the customer is unsure. It turns out they don't have the Cellist of Sarajevo anyway.

Manager; How about a copy of a classic? We've got some limited edition prints, they make nice presentation gifts. A poetry collection perhaps?

Customer; I'm not sure. Maybe I'd better speak to her mother and see if she has any suggestions…

Manager; OK and if you think of anything let me know, we can always order it in if it's not here.

The old lady shuffles off and leaves the shop, thanking the manager for her help.

~

The thing I noticed most about this little encounter is this: No sale was made.

It perfectly illustrates both the good and bad side of local independent bookshops (and all other independent 'Ma & Pa' style shops for that matter). They offer exceptionally good customer service and attention to detail. The owners and staff know their stock inside out, have a passion for the subject and will go to any length to help. The flipside to that is they often lack a commercial edge. The conversation posted above didn't result in a sale. Maybe the manager should have suggested a book token. That's the kind of gift you'd expect from your grandmother, right? When I say 'suggested', I meant insisted on it until the nice old lady felt compelled to hand over £10, money she could ill-afford from her meagre pension, just so she could leave the shop and get away from the over-zealous manager. Not really, but you get the idea.

After the customer left, the manager and (I assume) the owner went back to whatever they were doing before she came in, which was sorting through a box of books and deciding their fate. The interchange went something like this;

Manager; What should I do with 'The History of Paperclips'? (I made that title up, but it was something pretty obscure)

Owner; Mark it down to zero and bin it.

Manager; Really? Someone might buy it. Shall I put it to 99p?

Owner; OK then.

There were several other strange and unsellable sounding books shouted across the shop floor, and most of them ended up at 99p and no doubt tossed into a 'bargain bin' or were destined for a trestle table to stand outside in the cold in the hope of selling to a passing paperclip enthusiast.

This and the cello book conversation made me fear the worst for independent book retailers, but it's not really enough to judge the situation by. I'm in no position to offer advice or guidance on how shops can better their commercial viability, but on the evidence I saw, the future looks bleak. But for all I know the shop might make thousands of pounds at the weekends.

I would love to be able to see copies of a book I'd written on the shelves of bookshops someday, so I dearly hope that they don't die out, independent and chainstores alike. Maybe I should splash out 99p for a book about paperclips?

Fantasy Football Writing

I've suddenly found myself entangled in a job writing for a Fantasy Football website. I'm still not sure how this happened, but by Sunday night I'll have had to have produced about 1,000 words for a fantasy football site, and then reproduce it all again every weekend until the end of the football season.

Last week I was looking for information about which Premiership players were about to be jetting off to represent their respective countries in the upcoming African Cup of Nations. I used Google to find a list of all the players I should be avoiding in the coming weeks. The scenario I wanted to avoid was making costly transfers into my team just as they left the country for a month or so. Google duly furnished me with a neat table detailing who was going and from what team, exactly what I needed, all courtesy of a website called www.fantasyfootballcheat.com. A quick browse of the site revealed it to be like a secret bunker where all the other fantasy football managers gather to discuss in earnest detail their strategies for maximising points for the on-going season. Just up my street. Anyway, I hit 'like' for Facebook updates and left, happy that I had what I needed regarding errant African players.

Last weekend, via their facebook posts, I noticed a link to FantasyFootballCheat's site for a call for writers to join their team to provide fantasy football related copy. After reading the article I fired off a jokey email to express my interest. A couple of hours later the site contacted me, and to cut a long story short, they offered me a job.

The word 'job' implies payment, which doesn't apply here. The FFC website is a one man band, and his advert was a call for people to help write articles. After a tentative question about the money (there is none) I told him I was up for it. After all, if it turns out to be a chore, I can just stop. After several more emails between the two of us it was agreed that I'd be writing the weekly round-ups of the weekend's matches, capturing the noteworthy developments of interest to those player fantasy football. I had another look at the site and realised that this section forms the front end of the website. Wow – looks like I got the shop window.

So this weekend I will be watching the matches with added interest. I'll have half an eye on the matches and how it affects my team in the various leagues I'm in, but I'll also be making notes on various players and managers so as to have the bulk of an article for Sunday night's deadline. Apparently the site gets a lot of overseas traffic, so ideally the piece needs to be done for Sunday night so there's fresh content for the timezone differentials. I'm still unsure of how easy this will be to do, but it's worth a try.

I often shout at the screen whilst watching football and it's usually related to how events will affect my team in the alternate universe of fantasy football, so theoretically writing it down for publication shouldn't be a problem. Plus now I am kind of obligated to write properly every single week, which can't be a bad thing. Someone will be awaiting the new article every week and once my first piece goes up on the site, I'll know that literally thousands of people are reading it.

What's in it for me? I often pose myself this question when considering whether or not to do something, and the answer here is mainly that is should be fun to do. OK, I'm not being paid, but hopefully I'll enjoy writing it and seeing any subsequent buzz it creates on the site. The other issue is that it's impossible to know where it will lead. The site must pull in some revenue in terms of advertising from the various banners, and I already know that it gets thousands of views, so who knows how this will end up.

From now on I'll be listening to Alan Hansen and Mark Lawrenson a lot more closely whilst watching Match of the Day!

My 'To Read' Pile.

Goodreads.com has a 'Reading Challenge' where members set themselves a target of books to read each year. For 2011, part way through the year, I set myself a target of 15 books, which I just about managed. I'm not sure if it included things I'd read on the Kindle app for my iPod Touch, but nevermind. I wasn't particularly concerned by meeting my self-imposed target, I was more interested in finding out how many books I read during the year.  This year I've gone with a target of 20.

Compared to a lot of people I'm not a prolific reader, and looking at last year's total of roughly 15 for the year, it looks like I average one and a half each month. I received a few books for Christmas, plus I have a few around the house that I didn't get around to, so this should be a good start.

The above is a photo of my current 'To Read' pile. Or at least it's a collection of the books I am looking forward to reading, there are bound to be some unread titles at home but for whatever reason I haven't felt inclined to start them.

The pile is not in any particular order, but the one on top I am about three quarters of the way through. To give you a brief breakdown of each book in the pile:

The Prow Beast by Robert Low

This is the fourth book in the Oathsworn series by historical fiction writer Robert Low. I'm a massive fan of Vikings and Norse mythology, so Low's tales of sea voyages and the bloody trevails of a band of warriors is right up my street. His style is full of the bloody, dirty, filthy type of narrative you'd expect from authentic early medieval historical fiction. Low is also a historical re-enactor, so his books are dripping with authentic touches from the period, perfect for a history geek like me.
The Dead Women of Juarez by Sam Hawken

I don't know much about this, I picked it up from Waterstones on a whim as they had a sale and this was half price. Admittedly it was the cool cover and title that drew me in, but the story is about a series of deaths in Juarez in Mexico, a troubled border town. A quick flick through of the text while in the shop was enough to convince me it was worth the £4 I paid for it. I might follow up with a better review once I've read it.
Worth Dying For by Lee Child

I bought this cheap from Tesco, having never read any Lee Child books before. I got it with the idea of reading something that was fast paced and economical in terms of prose. I'm currently attempting to write a crime thriller myself, so I thought I'd see if I can pick up tips from one of the masters.
The Orchard Keeper, Suttree, and Outer Dark by Cormac McCarthy

The three Cormac McCarthy  books complete my McCarthy library. As far as I know, I have all of the novels he's written, and these will round off my reading of his books. I regard McCarthy as a god among writers. His style is really distinctive and I've often read passages that have made me stop reading and go 'wow' – so good they almost make me want to stop writing myself as I could never get anywhere near this good.
The English Rebel by David Horspool

This is the only non-fiction book in the pile, and might well be the only one I read this year. I saw David Horspool talking about his book at a Q&A session co-hosted by Bernard Cornwell and thought it looked really interesting, but only just around to getting a copy. It's basically a round-up of all the rabble-rousing, trouble-making English rebels from the last 1,000 years, and should make for a fascinating read.

Like I mentioned before, there are a few other books on the shelves that should get a mention here, but these (I'm hoping) should be among the highlights. Stephen King, and I'm sure plenty of others, have often said that a good reader makes a good writer. Someone who has read extensively across a range of titles should be better informed when they themselves attempt to write something. I can see how this would be true, so hopefully some of it will rub off on me.

If you've read any of these titles, let me know what you think, and if you have recommendations for books, I'd be interested in that too.

Novel Excerpt – Kat Calls

Here's another excerpt from Seven Seconds, my finished but still under-the-knife novel. In it, protagonist Steve is called by his new girlfriend Kat, whom he has just discovered some unsavoury information about. Steve's slightly introverted, prone to indecision and procrastination, so an unexpected call from his new love interest is an uncomfortable experience.

~~~

On the platform waiting to go home the next day I can feel my mobile phone purring against my ribcage. It's Kat. This is the second time she has called today. The first time I genuinely missed the call, but to be honest I was relieved to have missed it. Now I have to decide whether or not to answer. The volume is beginning to ramp up the longer the call is unanswered, adding to my sense of indecision. I hit 'end call' and cut her off. This will just serve to aggravate the situation further, but I can't face the thought of the conversation at the moment.

My train rolls into the station and I file on with the rest of the homeward-bound commuters. A group of kids halfway down the carriage are talking animatedly about something they did earlier in the day. Their chatter is almost a foreign language of swearing and bad grammar, but mostly the passengers are muted, defeated and tired by a day at work in the summer. The familiar shrubs and back gardens of the railway line flick past the windows like the background in a cartoon chase scene, identikit buildings and lawns and swings and satellite dishes. My phone rings. This time the number is withheld.

"Hello?"

"Steve? It's Kat…"

"Oh hi." Shit. I inwardly accuse her of phoning me on a hidden number to trick me into answering.

"I called you earlier. Twice. Are you OK?"

Despite my blatant attempts to ignore her calls I can't detect any obvious sense of annoyance in her voice.

"Yeah sorry, I was in a meeting."

"About five minutes ago?"

"I'm on the train. It must have been a tunnel 'cos it cut out." I wince at such a blatant lie.

"Well OK," she says, still sounding quite neutral, "do you want to meet up for a drink tonight?"

"Yeah, good idea. What time?"

"Half past eight, meet you at the cafe again?"

"Cool. Are you working tonight?"

"Yeah, but I finish then so we can go out after that, like last time."

"Yeah,"

"Gotta go, seeya then Steve," she chirps down the phone.

"Seeya," I say back, and end the call.

She will probably spend the rest of the evening thinking about what to wear and where to go for a drink, whereas I will be struggling with my inner demons and dreading the conversation which is most likely going to break us up before we have even started seeing each other. I could have asked her about it over the phone. But it didn't seem like the right thing to do, and maybe it's testament to my feelings toward her.

I feel like I have set up an ambush for Kat to walk into. I put this down to the fact there are two totally different mindsets approaching tonight's rendezvous. One of us is expecting a pleasant night with their date, the other is the harbinger of doom. One is aware of the potential destruction he is about to unleash, the other is blissfully unaware. Then I remind myself it was Kat who omitted these details when we were talking about ourselves. Technically she hasn't lied, she just left out gargantuan events from her recent personal life.

As the train comes to a halt over a bridge I look out down onto a high street bustling with evening traffic. I think of all the people going about their everyday lives. I bet not many of them have found out the person they've just started seeing was once an illegal immigrant lap-dancer who performed extras for cash. The train jerks back into life and the road is replaced by overgrown verges and sidings. I decide to ignore my pervading sense of self-pity and replace it with a determination to get an explanation from Kat.

Novel Excerpts – Last Night At The Villa

Random image of a villa from the intermaweb.

I've decided to start posting excerpts from my completed (yet still to be tinkered with) novel. The best part about posting excerpts of your work is that it is effectively a lengthy pre-written blog post, you just cut and paste it into the blog. The other function it serves is that it helps to remind me that the crap I write should really be read by people, or what is the point of writing it? That's possibly a subject for another blog post/rant.

The excerpt below is from the penultimate chapter of my novel, Seven Seconds, which is completed but still a work in progress in terms of editing. The following takes place in a villa in the Canary Islands after a night out to celebrate the protagonist's last night on the island.

~

We sit outside under a night sky studded with stars beyond a smear of cloud cover thin enough to be drifting smoke. We spend hours talking about our lives back in the UK, and even though Rob holds court with tall tales he still manages to hold back any real facts about himself. In the indeterminable amount of time we spend talking, I learn that Penny's brother works for a travel company, so they're staying virtually free in one of the upmarket hotels along the coast. Gemma is a solicitor, and Penny is a project manager of some kind at a large plastics company which uses recycled materials to create components for something or other, but in reality I am not really listening. A potent mix of alcohol and late nights have all but burnt out my already short attention span, and my mind keeps drifting off to thoughts of home and seeing Kat again.

A breeze picks up from nowhere, sweeping across the darkened valley beyond the terrace. The thick cotton of the canopy flaps in protest, causing Gemma and Penny to rub their arms and shiver.

"If you're cold we can go inside," Rob suggests.

"It's a bit chilly now," Gemma says.

We grab our drinks and return to the house, where both Gemma and Penny continue their mime of being uncomfortable with the temperature.

"If you're still cold I can get you a top if you want," Rob offers.

Penny declines but Gemma agrees. Rob grabs her wrist and whisks her off to his bedroom to choose something, the subtext obvious to us all. I shoot an embarrassed glance across to Penny, now sitting on one end of the big sofa, her legs curled underneath her. She returns my look, an ocean of awkwardness now standing between us. The stage is set for me to make a move on Penny, to complete the equation Rob has set us. Only a couple of months ago this would have been a very attractive scenario. But right now it just doesn't feel right. I feel like Penny and I are collateral caught up in Rob's war on boredom. I take a seat at the other end of the sofa, close enough to be friendly, but not too close to suggest an imminent amorous advance.

"When are you going back to the UK?" Penny asks.

"Tomorrow evening. Hopefully I won't be too hung-over by then."

"I hate travelling when I'm tired, having a hangover would be an extra level of hell for me."

"Me too."

A sickly silence falls across the villa. Rob's bedroom door was closed behind them when they went looking for extra layers, so at least we're spared an embarrassing soundtrack.

"Tell me," Penny says, her voice lowered slightly, "is Rob seeing anyone?"

"No, he's not."

"You sure? He strikes me as the kind of person who would use this place as a place to cheat when the cat's away."

"I know what you mean, but he's single, believe me. I don't think many women can put up with him for long."

Penny laughs and we both relax. Any tension seems to have dissipated now. She asks about my plans for when I get back, and I tell her about spending a couple of days relaxing before going back to work. Penny has another week on the island, and I can't help but imagine her and Gemma finding themselves in another situation like tonight before they leave.

"Do you have anyone waiting for you when you get back, Steve?"

Her question sounds like the kind of talk homesick soldiers exchange during a long tour of duty.

"Yeah I do. We've only just started seeing each other, but it's going really well."

"That's nice. You must really like her."

"I do. But like I say, it's early days so we'll see." I can feel myself blushing, but I feel comfortable at the same time.

"Good luck to you both. If you like her and can't wait to get back to see her, that's got to be a good sign."

Penny's right. I can't wait to get back to Kat and some sense of normality.

"What about you? Anyone special?" I ask her.

"No. I've been single for a while now since a nasty break up a couple of years back. I've had a few dates here and there, but I'm not Bridget Jones yet." We laugh together, relaxing into our respective ends of the sofa.

"I'm gonna get a drink of water. Do you want anything?" I ask her, hauling myself out of my seat.

"Yes please, water would be great."

I go into the kitchen and pour chilled water into two glasses and return to the living room. Penny is curled up on the sofa, her legs drawn up beneath her, fast asleep. I put her glass down on the table in front of her and walk out onto the terrace. Darkness shrouds the countryside and only isolated pinpricks of light from houses across the valley pierce its depths. As I'm staring out into the night toward where the ocean should be I can make out sporadic flashes of lightning, a storm out to sea. In the stillness of the air I can even hear distant rumbling, the voices of angry gods, like the sound of someone moving furniture around in an upstairs room. I hope the storm is heading our way, breaking overhead and waking me during the night. The flashes continue on and off for several minutes, lighting up the sea for a millisecond like a badly fitted light bulb.

Endings – Too Much, Or Not enough?

I read this joke/saying the other day on a Kindle forum regarding the endings of novels :

Americans want a happy ending, Canadians end without answering your questions, Brits just stop writing, and the Russians aren't happy until five generations of the family history has been explored.

I've never heard this before, but I can see that it does holds some truth, and as a British *ahem* writer I can attest to the Brit part. It basically boils down to a cultural perspective of storytelling. The types of stories we tell as a culture are shaped by our national traits. If I can take the US and British aspects of the above, as I have more experience of these two types of novels, I can see the underlying national characteristics regarding the conclusion of novels.

To employ some mass generalisation here, US novels, films and television do in general have neat and tidy endings. Closure is almost demanded by US consumers, the same is not so true with the British. To explore possible cultural explanations to this, you'd have to look at the characteristics of the people. Again, to generalise, the Americans are largely optimistic, one of the reasons we love them. Their 'can-do attitude' and 'have a nice day' has served them well for generations. So, in large, their media reflects this. The British are more world-weary, nay cynical, than that. If they read a novel which ends with the lonely woman desperate to find love getting married to Mr. Right, we'd baulk, throwing it down in disgust with the words 'oh for goodness sake'. Possibly, anyway. 'Happily ever after' endings don't work for the Brits. We prefer '(possibly) happily ever after, but if it ends in tears at least it's realistic'.

The US comedian Greg Proops put it more succinctly – I've paraphrased a line of his stand-up routine here;

An American family go to Disneyland, and while there they see Mickey Mouse. The whole family goes 'omg, look IT'S MICKEY! I can't believe it!' They rush over and get photos and shake hands etc. Whereas the British family see Mickey Mouse and go *whispers* 'Don't look now, but there's some guy dressed as a mouse, for goodness sake! How ridiculous…' and shuffle off in the other direction.

In terms of films, think of the ending to The Italian Job, with Michael Caine and Noel Coward. The coach carrying the gold teeters on the edge of a cliff, and Michael Caine's character says "Hang on a minute, lads – I've got a great idea." Then the credits roll. You never find out if they retrieved the gold or not. By the way, if you haven't seen The Italian Job, and I've spoilt the ending – you're an idiot for not having seen it yet. It came out in 1969. What have you been doing all these years? Caine suggested that the producers did actually film a different ending, where they escape with their lives, but the gold goes off the cliff, to be collected by the rival gang. True or not, that version was decided against.

That's a perfect British ending. Decide for yourself if they got the gold or not. Like the original saying, the scriptwriter simply stopped writing.

Before you start throwing a coach-load of examples of Hollywood TV shows and films with messy-but-cool endings, those are what make the films/shows so good in the first place. The Sopranos? The final episode devided opinion, but I loved it. They avoided the obvious. For that they get a rich tea biscuit. The Wire? Again, I'd expect nothing less from David Simon.

For my part, the end of my novel (work in progress) has a similar ending. Now I think about it, maybe be too similar…! But anyway, rather than conclude all the matters and resolve the issues and conflicts raised, I open up a new channel for the reader to agonise over. This might possibly infuriate some American readers if the above statement is true, but hey, I don't like neat denouements.

As for Canadian writers ending without answering your questions – well, I'd like to know, but I suspect they won't tell me! Classic Russian novels tend to be massive epics like War and Peace and Doctor Zhivago, so the scope for the reader to indulge his/herself in five generations is quite possible. As for their more modern novels, I have no idea.

Endings – neat and tidy or ambigious but realistic?

Creative Writing Course – Week #8

Week 8 – the last class of the first term. Chapter 1 submitted.

I was randomly selected to read a section of mine, a daunting task when you've printed out the final version for submission and are then asked to read it out to a room full of critics – knowing that any edit suggestions can't be implemented, but it seemed to go down well, so I'm not too concerned. Too late now anyway.

It being the last class of the term, there wasn't much to feed back on from the previous class, as we'd all been editing our work prior to submission. In terms of editing, I didn't make too many changes, mainly due to the fact the bulk of the editing work was undertaken from the first time my chapter was seen by a tutor, with a few tweaks here and there afterwards. Another factor in not doing too much editing on it just before submission is that I wanted to avoid the 'point of diminishing returns' issue – where you work on something so much that you end up with less than you started out with. I feel that being 100% happy with your work is an unhealthy place to be, especially as a writer. If you think it's absolutely awesome, you can guarantee it's not.

Don't get me wrong, I read my chapter through a million times, read it aloud, printed it out, read it again, made comments in the margins etc, and pondered how it could be altered and improved. But ultimately I got it to where I was reasonably happy with, and released it into the wild. Fire and forget.

The remainder of the session focused on the state of the publishing industry at the moment, which inevitably slid into discussions about self-publishing and ebooks. I've been reading a lot about this recently, and have even dabbled with a Kindle-released short story myself, Unfamiliar Country, and a lot of what was said chimed with my own thoughts on the subject. JA Konrath's name inevitably came up in reference to self-publishing success stories, but these 'streets paved with gold' tales are always to be caveated by the knowledge that while success is possible, it's not the norm. The pros and cons of the self-publishing Kindle route can be left to other vastly more experienced writers, namely Konrath himself.

As it was the last class before Christmas, we adjourned to the pub to discuss all sorts of crap; writing, books, film and TV, and the suggestion that someone in the group should write a lurid sex scene which they can then share with the rest of us in one of the next reading-work-aloud sessions. Not that I was volunteering, I was merely making the suggestion!

Now that the first term has finished, there will be a lull in the week by week blogs about the course until the new year. To keep me ticking over I might post up snippets of my work in progress, just to prove to myself I am actually doing some writing!