L.E. Truscott's Blog, page 23

Infusing Your Characters With Cultural Identity: Does It Have to Be Your Own?

In 2016, Lionel Shriver, author of We Need to Talk about Kevin, Big Brother and The Mandibles, delivered the keynote speech at the Brisbane Writers Festival. The topic was supposed to be “Community and Belonging” but she opened her address by admitting she would not be sticking to the proposed subject. Instead, she would be delivering her thoughts on “Fiction and Identity Politics”.

To boil it down to the most simple premise, her thoughts were that she shouldn’t be restricted from writing about cultural identities other than her own and that if she were, all her characters would be “an ageing five-foot-two smartass” and she would have “to set every novel in North Carolina”.

Yassmin Abdel-Magied was in the audience listening to Shriver’s speech. An Australian born in Khartoum to parents of Sudanese and Egyptian backgrounds, she is a mechanical engineer, activist and founder of Youth Without Borders and last year released her memoir, although she is not a fiction writer. After twenty minutes of listening to the speech, she walked out, unable to listen to what she called “a poisoned package wrapped up in arrogance and delivered with condescension”, continuing, “The reality is that those from marginalised groups, even today, do not get the luxury of defining their own place in a norm that is profoundly white, straight and, often, patriarchal.” You can read her full response here.

Lionel Shriver knows this, at least in part. Her birth name was Margaret and at age fifteen, she decided to go by Lionel instead because she “was a tomboy”. From a youthful and formative age, identity was important to her. And as a woman, she is part of one of those “marginalised groups” Abdel-Magied was writing about.

So who is right? I suspect there is no right and wrong in this disagreement. If Shriver is prevented from writing exactly what she wants to, that smacks strongly of censorship. If Shriver writes exactly what she wants to about experiences from the perspective of “the other”, then terms like “cultural appropriation” begin to be bandied about.

Rachel Dolelzal was outed for cultural appropriation, a white woman who permed her hair, darkened her skin and worked as a civil rights activist for the NAACP. She defended herself by saying she was “transracial”, equating her identity struggles with those who are transgender. As someone who isn’t dark-skinned, transracial or transgender, it seems reasonable enough to me. Identity is about choice, after all, choosing who you want to be instead of just accepting who you are told to be. Of course, I’m part of that “profoundly white, straight” norm, so what would I know? And yet I’m a very long way from the patriarchal, so I hope I know a little.

I write “the other” all the time. Men, children, the elderly, married people, dead people, mothers, fathers, doctors, farmers, victims, killers. In my debut novel, Enemies Closer, there are several minor Chinese characters. Chinese in that they were born, raised and worked in China. I didn’t delve extensively into their cultural identities because it wasn’t that kind of book. The furthest I went was writing their English dialogue in a formal way, reasoning that it was their second language and that many people for whom English isn’t their mother tongue seem to stick rigidly to rules they are taught when they are learning it. In fact, I just recently read an article on BBC News online about how foreigners hate native English speakers because of how lax we are at sticking to the rules of our language, how much we love to use slang and sarcasm and newly invented words and speak too fast for genuine comprehension.

I’m not sure that Yassmin Abdel-Magied would approve of my use of Chinese characters. Would it help her to know that I did it specifically so that they wouldn’t be the bad guys of the novel, to turn the stereotypical notion of villains on its head? Would it make a difference that at my job at the time I sat next to a Chinese national (who later became an Australian citizen and a very good friend) who would advise me on numbers that were considered lucky and unlucky and translated several pieces of dialogue into Mandarin so that the book wasn’t completely white-washed?

In the yet-to-be-completed sequel to Enemies Closer, the bad guy is a global citizen born to a Turkish mother and a Liechtensteiner father who grew up speaking Allemanic, German, Turkish and English and later learned enough Russian, French, Spanish, Portuguese and several African dialects to get by in his chosen career, which was international arms dealer. I gave him those traits because I didn’t want his former or current nationality or languages to be linked to the reasons for his poor life choices. The inspiration for the character in real life was Russian, but how boring is that? It’s been done a million times before.

Assigning nationalities and languages is about as far as I go in exploring cultural identity in my writing. I don’t assign race, mostly because I don’t do extensive physical descriptions of my characters. Hair colour if I’m feeling imaginative. Eye colour if I’m verging on wild and wacky. Skin colour? Not once so far.

Perhaps the oddest thing is that the cultural identity I feel most uncomfortable exploring is my own. I doubt the authenticity of my Australianness, my identity as an Australian, so how could I write an authentic Australian character or story? What makes someone Australian? Not just being born here or naturalised. I don’t have any desire to explore the outback but I do love my football – Aussie Rules, of course. Do these factors cancel each other out? Am I just not Australian enough?

Some of the most respected Australian writers, who have contributed extensively to what it means to be Australian, are those who live overseas. So do we need to leave our countries, our cultures in order to write about them in profound ways? There’s an entire section in the Wikipedia article about Australian literature on expatriate writers such as Germaine Greer, Robert Hughes, Barry Humphries, Clive James and Geoffrey Robertson. I travelled overseas for a month in 2014 but it didn’t make me feel any more Australian, just unworldly and exhausted.

So what’s the solution to the question of cultural identity in writing? Write what you know, if that’s what you want to do. Write “the other”, if you want to do that instead. It doesn’t have to be authentic. It just has to feel and sound like it is. Which means avoiding stereotypes. Which means thinking beyond national dress and official languages. Which means undertaking a lot of research. And which means being prepared to take it on the chin when other people don’t like the choices you make.

*****

It’s Australia Day downunder today. Some people prefer to call it Invasion Day. As a writer, I just enjoy having a public holiday I can devote to writing and inspiration for my latest blog post!

The Death Decision: Which Characters to Sacrifice for the Good of Your Story

Because writers are the gods of the little universes they create, eventually they must make hard decisions about their characters. And unless you’re a psychopath or sociopath, the hardest of them all is deciding which characters to kill and when.

Even in genres where it might seem like death isn’t going to or shouldn’t rear its ugly head, like romance, it can be an important background event. But it’s just as important not to overuse it. Violent video games have shown us that too many deaths leave people desensitised. But one perfectly-timed and meaningful fatality might be exactly what your story needs.

Villains

It’s easy to kill off villains at the end of a story, right? They’re the bad guys, they’ve served their purpose spending the entire story doing the wrong things for the wrong reasons, and it’s what they deserve. Besides, they can’t just get away with all the bad things they’ve done. Right?

In a simplistic world, all these things are true. And if you have a simplistic villain with no redeeming moral characteristics, then it’s hard to justify keeping them around. Even sending them to jail is just a little bit too mundane.

But if you have a complex villain in a complex world, then sometimes killing them off is counter-productive. Imagine if Jeff Lindsay had offed Dexter Morgan or Thomas Harris had executed Hannibal Lecter at the end of the books in which they made their first appearances. Entire subsequent Dexter and Hannibal-based industries would have been decimated.

Still, there are some villains that you really can’t get away with not killing. There really isn’t any way to get past the crimes of rapists, child molesters, child killers and sexually motivated murderers and torturers. But that doesn’t mean it’s your hero who has to kill them, not directly anyway. It might mean the villain falls off a cliff, gets caught up in the explosion of his or her own bomb or a variety of other endings. The plot details will determine the appropriate circumstances of their demise.

I’ve previously joked in an April Fools’ Day post that bad guys must be caught in the end because “we read fiction for the poetic justice that’s lacking in our everyday lives. Any novel in which the bad guys don’t get caught is simply missing its final chapters.” But poetic justice doesn’t just mean death. So when you kill off your villain, make absolutely sure you won’t want or need them again.

Minions

Who cares about killing off a few (or a few dozen) minions? We all should. Because any death in your story should have some meaning otherwise it may as well not happen. If your minions are meaningless, then why not just capture them, tie them up and send them off to jail?

It’s especially important because many minion deaths occur at the hands of main characters and every death that a main character is responsible for must weigh heavily on their subconscious. At the conscious level, it’s easy to rationalise the necessity of those deaths, especially for the writer who chooses for them to happen and then writes them on a clean, white page without ever getting blood on their hands.

But even if you don’t make your minions complex, your main characters should be. And anyone who has a death count higher than zero should be changed by each and every dead person they are responsible for.

Minor Characters

Minor characters die a lot, sometimes before the story even starts. That way, main characters can be dark, brooding and driven in the search for killers, forgiveness, new relationships or all three. The death of a parent, child, sister, brother or love interest is a very common story device. But because it’s so common, it has to be properly thought through and carefully done.

If a minor character has died before the start of the story, the main characters have already had time to process it and begin to move on but if it happens during the story, then all the stages of grief need to be factored in, even if all the main characters are doing is trying their best to avoid them.

The death of minor characters also needs to be imperative in the plot. It’s one thing to kill a dozen minions who barely have back stories, let alone names, but minor characters are generally a bit more important. So if you’re going to kill them off, then you need a really good reason why.

Main Characters

Killing off a main character is a big decision – and killing off a main character who is the sole main character is huge – and therefore not to be taken lightly. Some main characters are killed because their stories are complete, some are killed for the shock value and some are killed because their creators didn’t want to write about them anymore.

Don’t let Stephen King’s novel, Misery, put you off killing a main character if you have your heart set on doing it. Even though readers may become attached to them, it’s very unlikely you’ll be kidnapped by a crazed fan who forces you to write the story of that character’s “rebirth”. But make sure you do justice to your main character. If they were good enough to write about to start with, then don’t they deserve the very best death they can get?

*****

Whoever you decide to kill off, whether they’re a villain, a minion, a minor character or a main character, make absolutely certain you’ve got a good reason for doing it and that you’re not going to change your mind. Because if there’s one thing readers hate more than beloved characters being killed off, it’s beloved characters returning from beyond the grave in poorly contrived circumstances simply because you regret an earlier decision.

The A to Z of Writing

Just because everybody loves a good listicle (so I hope it qualifies), here’s the A to Z of writing.

A is for Authenticity – you don’t have to know what you’re talking about. Write what you know, write what you don’t know but just make sure you sound like you know what you’re talking about. If you write about the police force and someone actually in the police force reads your book lacking in accuracy or verisimilitude (the ring of truth), then that person won’t hesitate to tell the world. And you’ll just come off as someone who couldn’t be bothered doing a little bit of research.

B is for Brainstorming – it’s one thing to have an idea but to bring it to life with all the little details that give it depth, you’ll have to do a lot of brainstorming. If you want to write about a man who kills his father, great (maybe not for your father, who might wonder why). But it becomes two very different stories depending on whether the son had a happy upbringing or an abusive one. And only brainstorming will get you to the point where the story makes meaningful sense.

C is for Characters – I’ve written about characters before and the roughly seven types (everyman/woman, hero, anti-hero, villain and the three characters who fall between each of those categories). I’ve also written about how characters are one of the three crucial things that make a great book (the other two being plot and the writing itself). So it’s really important to get your characters right. They don’t have to be likeable and, contrary to popular opinion, they don’t have to be relatable. They just have to be interesting and make readers want to spend time with them.

D is for Dialogue – stilted, unrealistic or laughable dialogue is a great way to doom your writing before it even has a chance to get off the ground. Writing dialogue is a talent in itself and there are a few things you can do to help improve it. The first is simply to listen. People talk naturally without giving a lot of thought to what they are saying and if your characters can do the same (or at least sound like they are doing the same), then you’ll be off to a great start. Then edit. Real conversations are peppered with boring stuff that you can cut out to make your dialogue much sleeker. And finally, read conversations aloud or, even better, have a friend or family member act the dialogue out with you so you can hear how it sounds. If you (or your friend or family member) stumble or laugh as you are attempting to get the words out, then the same will probably happen to the reader as they read and you’ll know it needs work.

E is for Editing – your work will always need editing. Even I, a trained editor, have to take off my writer’s hat and put on my editor’s hat when I’m editing my own writing. And even then, I still ask others to read my work and find the things I have missed. Because I make mistakes as I write. I make spelling mistakes, I make typos, I include inconsistencies. Sometimes (although not that often) I even make mistakes as I edit (usually inconsistencies rather than genuine errors). But it happens to the best of us. And as much as possible, you shouldn’t inflict your mistakes on readers.

F is for Feedback – one of the golden rules of writing is that you must listen to feedback. Yes, feedback is often personal rather than objective but that doesn’t make it irrelevant. So whether it’s your partner, your best friend, your writing group or an editor you’re paying, you must listen to their feedback and genuinely consider how to take their advice and make your writing better. You don’t know it all and you never will.

G is for Goals – goals, whether big or small, will help point you in the direction of where it is you want to end up. I advocate for a combination of both because having one big goal can seem impossible sometimes and not having one makes it difficult to know where you’re going. But if you want to write a book (big goal), maybe working towards a single chapter (small goal) or even just 500 words of that chapter (even smaller goal) will be the way to get there.

H is for Help – writing is a solitary occupation but as much as it might seem like you have to do everything, nobody can write, edit, polish, publish and market a book all by themselves. For me, polishing and marketing are the two things I always ask for help with. For you, it might be editing and publishing (I’m helping a first-time writer as I write this to edit and publish his book). Whatever it is, don’t be afraid to ask for help. Sometimes you’ll have to pay for it, sometimes people will be willing to help for free. But you’ll never know if you never ask. And if you never ask, your writing will never be the best version of itself or get to the people it needs to get to.

I is for Ideas – the thing that gets the whole process going is one great idea. It’s harder than it sounds. They don’t just pop into your head fully formed. It takes work. It takes a lot of musing. And sometimes it takes just as much effort to figure out if someone else has already had the same great idea. Because there’s no point spending months or even years developing your idea if somebody else has already written an almost identical book.

J is for Job – the one you’ll need to keep until you earn enough money from your writing to be able to quit. And believe me, it can be a long, long time before that happens.

K is for Keyboard – get familiar with the keyboard of your computer because you’ll be spending a lot of time tapping away on it unless you’re one of those nostalgic types who still writes long hand and wants to guarantee crippling arthritis in your later years, in which case you’ll be forced onto the keyboard eventually anyway (or forced to hire someone to take dictation or type up your dictation).

L is for Luck – no matter how much hard work even the most talented writer puts in, sometimes there is nothing that substitutes for a little bit, or even a lot, of luck.

M is for Motivation – why would anyone choose to write when there are so many better options? Like reading, watching movies, eating, socialising, waterskiing, dancing, etc? And sometimes even when you want to write, you just don’t have the motivation required. So if you can motivate yourself, great. If you can’t, sit down and try to write anyway. The motivation might show up. If it doesn’t, keep writing anyway. The mark of a true writer is someone who writes despite the challenges.

N is for Novel and Non-Fiction – almost every writer who wants to write fiction will end up writing non-fiction as well. Sometimes it’s the way into the fiction world (James Phelan’s first published book was Literati, a collection of interviews with notable Australians in the publishing industry, followed by more than twenty fiction novels), sometimes it’s because the established fiction writer has something they want to say about a non-fiction topic (Tara Moss wrote quite a few crime novels with main character Makedde Vanderwall before transitioning into some very deep and important subjects in The Fictional Woman and Speaking Out) and even I have published one fiction and one non-fiction book (so far and mostly because I didn’t realise I was writing the content for a non-fiction book as I wrote my blog posts). Go where the writing takes you.

O is for Originality – it’s becoming harder and harder as each new idea is claimed but there needs to be something different and original in whatever it is you are writing, otherwise what’s the point? If it’s all been done before, then readers might still read you but you’ll generally pale by comparison to whoever did it first. Whether it’s an original plot, an original character, an original genre, an original style or just an original spin on a familiar story, there’s got to be something new.

P is for Plot – the second of the three crucial elements for a good book (the other two being characters and the writing). If you’ve ever read a book review that complains, “Nothing happens!” (not that rare, you’ll see it in some of mine), you’ll know that readers enjoy a good plot. Books in which nothing happens and no one changes are generally felt to be a waste of time from the reader’s point of view. That doesn’t mean your plot needs to be epic. Yes, you can have a cast of characters saving the world but sometimes it’s just as interesting to read about characters who need to save themselves from the trials and tribulations of a normal life.

Q is for Qualifications – you don’t need any but qualifications may help to make you a better writer. In any case, they certainly won’t make you a worse writer.

R is for Reading – because all writers must read. Firstly, because it will expose you to what others are doing. Secondly, because it will teach you more about writing. And, thirdly, because of karma. If you don’t read, how can you possibly expect others to read you?

S is for Style – your writing style is all about the choices you make, the words you choose, the way you structure your sentences and paragraphs. Hemingway was described as having a minimal style, Toni Morrison has a descriptive style and I like to think I have a dry yet humorous style but I’m still working on it. By the way, you don’t have to have just one style. Sometimes different books require different styles or writers simply want to experiment.

T is for Time – something that all writers never have enough of. So write early, write often, write whenever you can and don’t waste a minute.

U is for Universe – the universe you choose to put your characters in, whether that’s a real world universe, an alternative world universe, a dystopian world universe or the Marvel universe. Making up new and different worlds can be a lot of fun but so can putting a fictional character into the real world and imagining how they react to it and how it reacts to them.

V is for Voice – although I should really say voices because it is the thing that makes you sound different from all the other writers and it’s also the thing that makes your characters sound different from each other. Finding your unique voice can develop over time and take a while but it’s one of the things that make readers choose your romance novel or crime novel or memoir over somebody else’s.

W is for Work – hard work, that is. Yes, writing can be fun and exciting and rewarding but most of the time, it is just a long hard slog. The way you generally know that you’re meant to be a writer is that the long hard slog doesn’t make you give up. As my favourite paraphrase goes, “It’s meant to be hard. The hard is what makes it great. If it wasn’t hard, everybody would do it.”

X is for X Chromosome – which women have two of. And unless you’re writing a book about an all-male colony on Mars (or something similar), then you’re going to have to write a female character or two along the way. It’s important not to fall into the trap of writing one-dimensional stereotypes or any stereotypes for that matter. Yes, women can be mothers, virgins, whores and astronauts, but as a general rule that’s not all they are. Your female characters should be complex and layered and multi-dimensional.

Y is for Y Chromosome – which only men have. And your male characters should be complex and layered and multi-dimensional, too, not just tall, dark and handsome action heroes with bulging muscles on a mission to save the girl and the world. Unless all the men in your writing universe have died out (or something similar), you’re going to have to write a male character or two along the way.

Z is for Zillions – this is how many times you will doubt yourself during the writing process and how many times you’ll have to overcome those doubts. And if you’re very, very lucky and very, very motivated and very, very hardworking and very, very original and very, very authentic, then it might just stand for the rewards you receive in the end.

Book Review: The Writing Class by Jincy Willett

If ever there was a novel to break the “show, don’t tell” rule – willingly, completely, knowingly – this is it and this is the only novel that is likely to be able to get away with it. But getting away with it doesn’t automatically equal a great book. In this case, it equals a good one but not a great one.

Amy is a published author and academic who teaches a writing class at a local university. But her last book is a very long way behind her and the wannabee writers aren’t students, they are paying for an evening extension class. The participants include a doctor, a lawyer, a former child actress, a mildly infuriating feminist, a retired teacher and several others. Each week someone brings a piece of writing and the class spends time analysing it and provides written feedback to help the writer improve.

At first it’s like every other writing class Amy has ever taught. There are some good writers, there are some bad writers, there are some who aren’t writers at all and thought the class would be a good way to pick up women. But then one of the participants starts providing feedback that is anonymous and unnerving including cruelly parodying a poem, drawing crude images and using very bad language as well as crank calling Amy on the phone and whispering repeated phrases and sentences.

Amy decides to cancel the class and tells her students why but they like her and want to continue. They meet off campus instead and she’s concerned that they seem to be excited by the Sniper, as they’ve taken to calling him (or her, the infuriating feminist continually reminds them). But then Frank, one of the writing class participants, is found dead at the bottom of a cliff. Suddenly, it’s not so exciting anymore. The police think it was an accident so the writing class takes it upon itself to figure out who the killer is. The only thing they know for sure, though, is that it’s one of them.

The Writing Class is a great big inside joke for anyone who has ever tried to write or attended a writing class. It’s also like a how-manual woven into a novel. Snippets of the pieces of writing are included – a very bad attempt at a vampire tale, a revenge story full of corny dialogue, a fantastic how-I-ended-up-owning-a-spider in-class writing exercise, a poem about suicide and lots more – and considerable time is spent by the class discussing them as Amy educates her class and Jincy Willett educates the reader.

Consequently, the story itself is a very slow burn and I wondered how long anyone interested only in reading and not writing would persevere. Of course, as a writer myself, I can’t know that. I found Amy interesting enough, although perhaps a tad too much like me (she even mentions the one and only joke that I can remember and that cracks me up every time – Jesus on the cross telling Peter, “I can see your house from here”) because I’m not interesting enough to sustain an entire chapter, let alone an entire novel.

The other characters were a bit flat – there were a lot of them and I honestly can’t remember much about any of them even though I’ve just finished reading the book – and when the Sniper is eventually revealed, I thought, “Was I meant to be able to figure that out?” Because I didn’t – I couldn’t, I don’t think anyone could – and the motivation and execution of the Sniper’s efforts was strange. Inserted throughout the book are some of the Sniper’s writing efforts, including taunting Amy and describing getting revenge on literary journal editors who had refused to publish their work by anonymously sending jumbo paper clips, human hair and pulled teeth (given to them by a retiring dentist) in the mail.

But it’s very well written and I’ve certainly never read anything else like it, so it has some originality going for it. However, since Jincy Willett is also an author who teaches creative writing in California, just like Amy, I wondered how former students would feel about it, how much of them she had infused the book with. Inspiration is one thing but semi-autobiographies are another. And since Amy ends the book in the midst of writing the story of the story of the story (if you get what I mean), it ends up being very much like the following scene from the movie Adaptation, written by Charlie Kaufman. (Donald is his screenwriting twin brother in the movie, although fictitious in real life.)

Donald: Caroline has this great tattoo of a snake swallowing its tail and—

Charlie: Ourosbouros.

Donald: I don’t know what that means.

Charlie: The snake is called Ourosbouros.

Donald: I don’t think so. But, anyway, it’s cool for my killer to have this modus operandi. Because at the end when he forces the woman, who’s really him, to eat herself, he’s also eating himself to death.

Charlie: I’m insane. I’m Ourosbouros.

Donald: I don’t know what that word means.

Charlie: I’ve written myself into my screenplay. It’s eating itself. I’m eating myself.

Donald: Oh. That’s kinda weird, huh?

Charlie: It’s self-indulgent. It’s narcissistic. It’s solipsistic. It’s pathetic. I’m pathetic. I’m fat and pathetic.

Donald: I’m sure you had good reasons, Charles. You’re an artist.

Charlie: The reason is I’m too timid to speak to the woman who wrote the book. Because I’m pathetic. Because I have no idea how to write. Because I can’t make flowers fascinating. Because I suck.

Adaptation is a great, great movie about a writer and writing and The Writing Class has the same sensibility about it while being a little more mainstream friendly. The front cover proclaims it as The Writing Class: A Novel like it needed to be made clear. Maybe it should have been made clear to the author. Even though I don’t resent the time spent reading it, it should have focused a little less on being a how-to guide and a little more on being a great fictional plot. I’ll be very interested to see what non-writers have to say when I perform my post-book review ritual of reading other people’s thoughts on the same story.

3 stars

*First published on Goodreads 30 November 2016

What to Do When You’re a Bad Writer with a Good Story

These days it seems like writing a book is on everybody’s bucket list. And if you’ve got a great story, then it deserves to be told. But what if you’re a bad writer? Just because everybody wants to write a book doesn’t mean everybody is capable of doing it.

If you can recognise that you’re a bad writer, congratulations. It puts you one step ahead of all those people who can’t see it and persist in trying to write and circulate a book that is never going to get published, at least not in its current terrible form. And if you’re committed to getting your story out there regardless, here are a few options to help make it happen.

Learn to be a Better Writer

Oh, if only it were this simple! But if you’re determined that you, and you alone, must be the one to tell this story, then you need to become a better writer. Of course, learning to be a better writer can be either a long-term prospect or, for some people, an impossibility. But you’ll never know if you don’t try.

Whether it’s by undertaking a short course or a degree in writing or editing, by attending seminars and lectures, by reading widely, by joining a writing group, by practising a lot or by doing a combination of all these things (which would be my suggestion), there are no quick fixes, no fast tracks, no ‘Collect $200 as you pass Go’ options. You must accept that learning to be a better writer will likely take a while.

The benefit of this option is that once you learn to be a better writer, you will always be a better writer and it will improve all the writing you do in the future, whether you have one book or seven in you.

Find a Good Writer with No Stories

It sounds strange but there are plenty of people out there with great writing skills who couldn’t come up with a good idea if someone sneezed it all over them. For those people, collaborating with a bad writer who brings great stories with them might be just the thing.

You do need to be a very special kind of person to be able to collaborate – the right temperament, patience and the ability to compromise are essential. If you’re a control freak, I wouldn’t recommend it. But if you’re looking for a no upfront cost, split the profits later option, then this might be the way to go.

Hire a Good Writer

It shouldn’t come as any great surprise that if you’re prepared to pay for it, you can find exactly what you’re looking for. You can hire a writer just like you hire a babysitter, although they tend to be a lot more expensive and required for a lot longer. The writer for hire will listen to your pitch, estimate how long they think it will take to write your book and provide a quote based on their hourly rate. Be prepared – the quote will likely be in the tens of thousands of dollars.

Hiring a writer isn’t an option for everybody. The significant cost puts it out of the reach of many. But for those who are able to afford an upfront cost, there is no splitting of the profits later. With a very successful book, this could simply be a very good investment.

When hiring a writer, you also have the option of still claiming the book as your own work. Football players do this all the time, hiring ghostwriters who are paid quite handsomely for their time and work but never mentioned once it’s time to publish. But you also have the option of crediting the ghostwriter, even though you retain all the publishing and profit rights. It entirely depends on the contract you negotiate with the writer you hire.

Hire a Good Editor

If you’ve already had a go at putting your story onto paper but are able to recognise that it is nowhere near publishable standard, you might be able to get away with hiring a good editor who is prepared to do restructuring and rewrites for you. There are still significant costs associated with this option but it’s nowhere near the cost of hiring a writer to write the book from scratch.

Some editors don’t offer this kind of service but some do (like me). Because I trained as both a writer and editor, I can provide a hybrid type of help, improving the writing as well as correcting all the standard editing issues (grammar, spelling, punctuation, formatting, etc).

It’s very important to find an editor who is a good fit for you. Sometimes the writer/editor relationship just doesn’t work. It’s not always a reflection on the editor, just on how that particular writer and editor worked (or didn’t work) together. So contact a few different editors and see who you feel most comfortable with. And ask for a sample edit on your first chapter or first thousand words so you can see exactly what you’ll be getting. When you’re spending thousands of dollars, that’s not too much to ask for.

Pitch the Story to a Television or Film Company

Writing a book isn’t the only way to get a good story out there. Television and film companies are always looking for good stories and they often recognise that the people with the great ideas sometimes aren’t the ones who will be able to bring them to fruition. It’s quite common to see television and film credits showing the story was developed by one person and the screenplay was written by another. And because they are so familiar with this scenario, they have plenty of writers on their books who specialise in working with people with great ideas.

*****

As with many things, in the case of being a bad writer with a good story, often it’s who you know and how much you’re prepared to pay that is the difference between that good story staying in your head or getting out there in the world.

One Main Character versus an Ensemble Cast

When I first started developing the concept for my upcoming novel, Black Spot, there were six main characters, three women and three men. But the more I worked on it, the more interested I became in the story of just one character. She didn’t mean to dominate – she wasn’t that kind of girl – but it ended up happening anyway. She was just so much more interesting – her story was just so much more interesting – and eventually all the other characters started drifting away.

Sometimes a character is so powerful that they insist on having their own story and sometimes a story is so varied that it needs an ensemble cast to tell it properly. There are pros and cons to each choice so make sure you consider them all.

One Main Character

Pros

*There are greater opportunities for in-depth character development – when you’re working with one main character, you can devote almost all of your character development time to that person. You can give them an intricate backstory and details that may not appear in the book but that inform what happens in the book to make them a complex character with many, many layers.

*Conversely, you don’t need to do as much character development for your other characters – while you still want them to be complex characters, you can get away with them being less complex because so much of the focus (both yours and the readers) will be on the main character.

Cons

*Boredom can set in a little more easily – writing one main character is a bit like having just one friend; no matter how much you like them, sometimes you just want to spend time with someone else. And if you feel this way writing the character, there’s the potential for your readers to feel the same way when reading about the character. But there are plenty of one main character books, so it can be done. It just needs to be done well.

*Generally, with one main character, the book must be from that main character’s perspective only. It can limit how much and when you are able to reveal plot points as the story progresses. Some plots suit this kind of limitation, especially when every other character already knows what’s going on, but others really struggle under the weight of it. You need to be really sure one main character suits the story you are trying to tell.

Tip

*If you have one main character, they don’t have to be likeable but it sure helps. If they can’t be likeable, perhaps it’s enough to be relatable. At the very least, they should be absolutely intriguing. If they aren’t any of these things, think about how long a reader would be willing to spend with them. If it isn’t for the length of an entire book, then you’re going to have a problem.

Ensemble Cast

Pros

*You can withhold information without using writers’ tricks – one of my greatest annoyances is writers withholding information for too long and doing it in ridiculous ways just to lengthen the suspense of a story. In the first chapter of The Husband’s Secret by Liane Moriarty, a wife finds a letter addressed to her from her husband, marked that it should only be read in the event of his death. Despite his completely unconvincing reason about why she shouldn’t read it now, it takes her 150 pages to finally open it. But with an ensemble cast, you can legitimately withhold information because each character can only know as much as they know unless they are specifically told. It’s a great way to build suspense without pissing off the reader.

*It’s more interesting to write from the perspectives of a variety of people – sometimes when you’re writing about one main character, you can get really sick of that person. But when each chapter or section switches between several viewpoints, it can help to keep you motivated and the writing flowing.

*It’s a great way to explore relationships from both sides – sometimes this isn’t what you want (a romance novel generally needs to be from one person’s perspective to help maintain the drama) but when you do, multiple perspectives give the reader the chance to see both sides of a story.

Cons

*It involves more character development work – with an ensemble cast, the readers expect them all to have different backgrounds, different motivations, different ambitions, different morals, different voices, different styles of dialogue, and on and on it goes. It can add up to a heck of a lot more work for the writer.

Tip

*If you choose to write an ensemble cast, make sure to give each of them enough exposure to justify including their perspective in the novel. If you’re just doing it because you can’t think of another way to reveal a plot point you need to reveal and that person only gets one chapter to narrate, the reader will resent it. Make up your mind – either they’re important enough for you to use them properly or they’re not.

*****

The great thing about making the decision between one main character and an ensemble cast is that there is no wrong decision as long as you know and respect the benefits and limitations of each and then execute your choice well.

How Long Should a Blurb Be?

It’s time for another “How long is a piece of string?” blog post. I’ve previously looked at how long a novel should be and how long chapters should be, so now that we’ve mastered those components, it’s time for how long a blurb should be.

Apart from the title and the author’s name, the blurb is the first thing a potential reader will read and unless there is some word of mouth getting around, it is primarily what will help them make the decision on whether or not to read it. Getting it right can be the difference between a sale and that sale slipping by.

Not Too Long

It should go without saying, but like so many things in writing, it has to be spelled out (pun intended) – a blurb shouldn’t be so long that it won’t fit on the back cover of the physical book you are publishing. Even if you’re only publishing as an ebook, the blurb still shouldn’t be too long because potential readers want to know pretty quickly the basic premise of the story.

For those who need a word limit, 200 would be an absolute maximum (and even that is probably a little too long).

Not Too Short

On the other hand, the blurb shouldn’t be too short either. While brevity is the soul of wit, a blurb needs to be more than witty. It needs to be informative and intriguing and interesting.

For those who need a word limit, 40 would be an absolute minimum. Think 40 sounds like a lot? Try boiling your elevator pitch down to so few words. It’s almost impossible.

Don’t Give Away Too Much

The biggest challenge of writing a blurb is not to give away too much. When you’re excited about the story between the covers, sometimes the urge to reveal everything as a means of drawing readers in is overwhelming. But if you give away too much, then there won’t be anything left to surprise them as they read the book. And there’s nothing worse than an anti-climax.

Don’t Give Away Too Little

Equally, if you give away too little in the blurb, you might be failing to connect with those potential readers. It’s so important to find the balance between too much and too little information, between creating in the person reading the blurb a sense of needing to know what happens as opposed to a sense of already knowing what happens.

Direct Quotes Only

Some of the most powerful blurbs are created by simply using a direct passage from the book. It’s rare that this is possible, that there is a moment in the book that sums up and sells perfectly the story contained within. But if it does exist, it certainly helps solve the problem of having to write a blurb from scratch.

Don’t Make the Book Out to Be Something It Isn’t

There’s nothing worse than a blurb that makes a reader think a book is about one thing, only for them to read it and find out it’s about something else entirely. As a general rule, I’m not that interested in romance novels. I’ll happily read other genres that contain elements of romance but there has to be something more to the story to interest me. So when I read a blurb that promises thrills and intrigue and crime and action, if I end up reading a book that is just romance, I feel let down. I feel deceived. Even if it was a perfectly good romance novel.

Making your book out to be something it isn’t is just setting yourself up for criticism.

*****

There are exceptions to these rules because in writing, when it’s done well, breaking the rules is always acceptable. But so few of us break the rules well. So if we can stick to the rules instead, we should come out at the other end with a blurb that if not remarkable is at least suitable.

Book Review: Will Grayson, Will Grayson by John Green and David Levithan

There are a lot of things that I just don’t understand why other people like them: Justin Beiber, Justin Beiber’s music, Justin Bieber’s hair, Game of Thrones. Unfortunately (I genuinely mean that, I am genuinely disappointed that I didn’t like this book more), I am adding Will Grayson, Will Grayson to the list.

The novel is narrated in alternate chapters by Will Grayson #1 and Will Grayson #2 (thus the title), two teenage boys struggling through their formative high school years. Will Grayson #1 is straight, single and attempting not to care about anything as a means of protecting himself from getting hurt. Will Grayson #2 is gay, desperately in love with his internet boyfriend and managing his depression diagnosis with medication and his mother’s help.

Perhaps a little strangely then, this isn’t actually Will Grayson’s story. It’s not even the other Will Grayson’s story. Both Wills are just supporting characters in a tale about the overweight, gay football player and musical enthusiast, Tiny Cooper. Tiny is Will Grayson #1’s best friend and Will Grayson #2’s potential love interest.

Still the blurb focuses misleadingly on how the two Will Graysons meet each other and discover they share the same name (and not much else). But Will Grayson and the other Will Grayson don’t actually meet until page 110. Anyone who has ever read my book reviews before will know I like to call this sort of thing a writer’s trick. Because the reader spends 109 pages wondering how long it will be before the promised meeting takes place. When it finally does, the two Wills spend less than one evening together before they go their separate ways, pretty much for the rest of the book.

Neither Will Grayson is especially interesting. Tiny Cooper is interesting. But because the story – his story – isn’t told from his point of view, we don’t get to see a lot of him. And the parts we do see are stereotypically flamboyant gayness. The issues he is struggling with – including weight, social acceptance, homosexuality in the locker room, relationships (both platonic and romantic) – are glossed over.

Will Grayson, Will Grayson is a concept book. The two authors started out with a very simple idea – two teenage boys with the same name – and decided to see where it would take them. They each wrote a first chapter introducing their Will Grayson and then got together to compare notes. John Green’s effort became the first chapter and David Levithan’s became the second chapter. And they continued writing their own Will Graysons and then meshing the story together.

I don’t know if that’s why there’s almost no plot, but there isn’t. I think that they simply got caught up in the concept, forgetting that while the concept was exciting for them as they wrote it, it wouldn’t translate by the time the readers had the chance to read it. So with almost no plot and narration by two not-very-interesting characters, it’s up to the writing to save the book. It’s an impossible ask. Because the writing is wonderful. But it’s just not enough.

There’s one last thing that can sometimes turn around the perception of a book and that’s a big twisty, didn’t-see-it-coming, poetic perfect ending. And because it’s a John Green book (at least partially), I was expecting a big, meaningful finish. Instead, it was cheesy and not great.

When I reviewed John Green’s The Fault in Our Stars, I mentioned the pages and pages of enthusiastic recommendations from newspapers and literary journals the publisher had included on the cover of the book and how when a book is so highly recommended, I become very sceptical. But because I read and loved The Fault in Our Stars, I wasn’t as sceptical this time. I wish I had been. Instead of being sceptical, I was disappointed instead. I’d take low expectations and a pleasant surprise over high expectations and a sad disappointment any day.

In a word: meh.

2 stars

*First published on Goodreads 7 November 2016

Holding Yourself to New Year’s Writing Resolutions

It’s been a whole year since I made four New Year’s writing resolutions. Given my previous lack of success in making plans and sticking to them when it comes to writing, I gave no guarantees about achieving any of them but because New Year’s Eve is right around the corner again, I thought I should review them and see if I managed to tick any of them off the list.

Resolution #1: Publish Black Spot

Straight off the bat, a big fat no. I didn’t publish Black Spot. I said at the time I made this resolution that I was just waiting for a couple of rejections from publishers before going ahead and self-publishing. Of course, that was before Black Spot was shortlisted for the 2016 Text Prize for Writing for Children and Young Adults. Although I didn’t win, I did get a lot of great feedback, did another rewrite and sent it off to a few more publishers. So I’m still waiting for a few more rejections. One way or another, Black Spot will be published in 2017. (I won’t call that a resolution, just an inevitability. There aren’t any more reasons to keep putting it off.) But as with everything when it comes to publishing, it’s just taking a little longer than I thought it would.

Resolution #2: Complete my third novel

Success! This year I finally finished writing the first draft of Trine, the novel that I began in 2013 and put aside and went back to and put aside and went back to so many times that I can’t remember how many. In fact, it went on hiatus so much that of the three novels I have written, it was actually the second one I started. I wrote a whole other novel, as well as a non-fiction book, in between.

Of course, the hard work is only just beginning. 2017 will be a year of rewrites and polishing and submitting to publishers and rejections and then more rewrites, submissions and rejections. (Again, not a resolution, just a realistic expectation.)

Resolution #3: Continue posting blog posts three times a week

Success again! In 2016, I posted 158 times, which was three times every week plus one bonus post when I shared that I had been shortlisted for the 2016 Text Prize. But writing so many posts was a genuine challenge, I think especially because I was doing paid work (i.e. not my writing) for about half of the year. I started to run out of ideas and motivation and I felt that the quality of my output was less than in the previous year. So, in 2017, I’ll be posting twice a week instead to see if a less demanding schedule helps. (You can take that one as a resolution.)

Resolution #4: Write and post another popular LinkedIn article

When I made this resolution, the LinkedIn article I wanted to best had over 8,000 views and 600 likes. In 2016, I wrote and posted another five LinkedIn articles but the old article from 2015 still had more views and likes in 2016 than the new ones combined, gathering a further 2,000 views. So this one was also a bust.

However, an article I posted in 2014, for reasons beyond my understanding, garnered more than 4,000 views two years after I originally wrote it. It just goes to show the importance of having your writing out there where it can be accessed weeks, months and years after you first write it. Just because you were ready to write it doesn’t mean readers were ready to read it. So make sure it’s somewhere they can get at it when the time eventually does come.

*****

From those four resolutions, it was a fifty-fifty success split. Maybe considering everything, I could call it sixty-forty. In the end, I suppose it’s better to have goals and be part of the way towards achieving them than to have none at all and be nowhere close.

Happy new year to everyone! I wish you all another year of good reading and writing!

The Risk of Exposure: Putting Yourself and Your Writing Out There

Being a writer can be a double-edged sword sometimes. When we first publish, in whatever format we choose, we think, “What if nobody reads my work?” When we realise we are gaining some traction and are being read, we think, “What if people read my work and don’t like it?” It’s rare that we think about the stranger end of the spectrum.

But recently I was confronted with it when I received a request through the Contact Me page on this blog. It was from a man looking for a writer/publisher to help him complete, edit and publish his book.

My immediate thought was to reply with a quick “thank you but no thank you”. I’m busy enough writing my own books and have no interest in writing someone else’s. And I am one of those idiots whose first thought is always to be polite, even when there’s something in the back of my mind warning me that responding (and thereby providing my email address) might not be the smartest idea.

However, those warning bells started ringing a little more loudly as I read through the rather lengthy request. Originally posted on a “m4w” website, which I later realised was some sort of man seeking woman dating service, the message from “John” (as I will call him) outlined his age, his body type, his marital status and his need for someone who would help him finalise his book and get it out there.

As he described it, “This book will be the most controversial, real and dramatic, life changing eye opener ever written. Maybe even a bible, so to speak…”

Okey dokey.

But I wasn’t the only writer he was contacting (please note all spelling, grammar and punctuation mistakes are John’s): “Im also gonna put this ad on other sites because it doesnt have to be a relationship but it will be with someone Im gonna spend alot of time with, and who better than a woman I can be comfortable with. I dont want anyone to think this is bullshit. I seriously want true and sincere devotion.”

By now the warning bells were strident. I didn’t even need to read between the lines. He wasn’t just looking for a writer and publisher, he also wanted it to evolve into a relationship with “true and sincere devotion”. What the?

He went on, “I,ll give you a hint of why I know it will be the best book ever written. Because its gonna attract every person from around the globe from every race, creed, color and religion. Its gonna attract the believers and the non believers, the politicians and liberalist. Police, judges and lawyers. defendants, co-defendants, gays and straights bis and tris.” (No, I don’t know what a “tri” is either.)

And then he concluded with, “And here’s something else for ya, I cant count how many times Ive felt comfortable enough with someone that I would spit out the most unbelievable shit, only to hear my girl(or whoever I was with, friends) tell me that, that was the smartest and most remarkable statement they had ever heard and that I should also roll with it. So here I am and Im ready to roll. Serious Enquiries Only.”

At this point I was beyond words. I Googled the request to see if I could find any references on hoax websites. I couldn’t. But that didn’t reassure me. And apart from anything else, there were about 100 spelling, grammatical and punctuation mistakes in the 800 word request, making me think the book would be a nightmare to edit, even if it was going to be the blockbusting bestseller he was sure it would be.

I decided to wait. While I had no interest in getting on board John’s crazy train, I thought it best to take a good long while to digest it and make a final decision on whether to send an email or just leave him to realise my lack of interest on his own. After all, he was contacting lots of other writers. I doubted he would be excitedly awaiting my response.

A few days later, John contacted me again. This time it was short and far from sweet: “So your a fake.? Or you really cant be professional enough to respond..?”

If I was waiting for a sign to tell me that not responding at all was the smartest thing I could have done, here it was.

As writers, we can’t choose our readers and we can’t choose which of those readers choose to contact us. But we can be smart about how we interact with our reading public. A few smart rules include:

*No personal contact: yes to a blog Contact Me page, Facebook, Twitter, no to revealing email addresses, home addresses or phone numbers. As so perfectly demonstrated above, sometimes this means choosing not to engage with people who want to engage with you.

*No personal information: this can be a hard one to stick to but it’s a rule for everyone, not just writers. How often do we hear cyber security specialists telling us that we should be extremely circumspect about what personal information we reveal online? Same goes for what personal information we reveal in our writing. It’s okay for my readers to know that I live in Melbourne, Australia but it’s not okay for them to know specifically which suburb. A good rule of thumb might be to only reveal the things you’d be fine with your arch enemy knowing. Because the potential is there for any one of your readers to become your arch enemy. Ask every famous person who has ever had a stalker. Or you could ask me. I’ve had two stalkers, long before I ever published a single word.

*No prioritising politeness: it might seem impolite not to respond but as more and more people read you and subsequently want to engage with you, it becomes less of a choice than a logistical necessity. So you might as well get used to not responding now.

*No second guessing: if something about the person contacting you seems off, don’t second guess yourself – there probably is something off. Most of the time the human instinct about self-preservation is spot on. It’s often when we decide to give the benefit of the doubt that we get ourselves into trouble.

*No second chances: if someone contacting you crosses a line, don’t hesitate to block them from being able to contact you again on your public forums. Most of these forums have rules and take breaches seriously so you can also report them. And in the most serious of cases, making a report to local law enforcement authorities might be the best thing you can do. Cyber stalking (for want of a better description) is a crime.

“Publish and be damned” might be the famous motto but it was coined in a time of refinement and respect, in an era we are moving further and further away from. Writing is important but so is a writer’s safety, both physical and emotional. One shouldn’t have to be compromised in order to achieve the other. So put your writing out there but know – and where possible mitigate – the risks.

*****

For anyone wondering whether maybe I’ve been overstating the weirdness of the request from John, here it is in its entirety so you can make your own decision. I’d love to hear what you would have made of it if you’d received it.

First Contact

“SERIOUSLY IN NEED OF A SERIOUS WRITER..ASAP

Hello!

Please understand that this is a pre-post I had placed under m4w.

In this case I would be looking for any somewhat young and ambitous straight male or female who’s heart would be set on writing a number one seller.

Please read;

SERIOUSLY IN NEED OF A SERIOUS PUBLISHER.. ASAP

body : heavy / status : divorced

age: 48

I am looking for a mature adult female that knows what she wants to do in life. A very serious and strong willed publisher thats looking to publish that number one seller. I am not asking that you invest any money into this goal as money is not needed. I do however need someone who is very social mediac(but drama free) with maybe a lot of followers or able to attract the attention of the public and be willing to invest your time. I could seek the help of a ghostwriter or a professional freelance writer but the trust would not be there. I wouldnt feel comfortable and I would feel like I was lacking true heartfelt guidance that I would feel from someone that would care about my integrity and has my best interests at heart.

This book is already pretty much written, you just have to be here with me to fill in the blanks. My thoughts come in pieces so you will have to be intellegent enough to put the story together in the correct order along with correct grammar, pronounciation and punctuation etc.

Yes, it will be about me and my life and how I come to end up with some very different and unorthadox but very sensible and serious thoughts and beliefs. I am not that famous person that everyone wants to read about, but people wont be able to resist this book, because with your help, It will sell it before its even done. And nobody will be left disappointed, but they will end up a different person. Its not a motivational piece but it will have the capability to change everyone and everything. After all, it was both anticipation and curiosity that killed more than just the cat.

And me, I am a very good, honest, mature and open minded gentelman that is fun to be around. There’s a lot to life I enjoy but you never know when something will come off the top of my head that would be so unbelievable but yet make so much sense.

I,ll give you a hint of why I know it will be the best book ever written.

Because its gonna attract every person from around the globe from every race, creed, color and religion. Its gonna attract the believers and the non believers, the politicians and liberalist. Police, judges and lawyers. defendants, co-defendants, gays and straights bis and tris. Its also gonna effect everyone in this country from early teens to adult hood. Things will change. This book will be the most controversial, real and dramatic, life changing eye opener ever written. Maybe even a bible, so to speak, but far from religious and hypocritical. People will ask the question, “well what if it was really like this?” and they just might say, “sounds like a better plan to me.” Once this book is out, the new and improved “activists” will step forward, and government and people will have no choice but to agree.

There may not be a heaven, but we can build it.

I have an opinion, an answer and a salution for just about every topic you can imagine.

So if your serious, then let the people know. Lets get it started and make this book a number one before it even hits the shelves.

I have so so much, but you have to be a believer. You will have to be able to understand me and maybe even agree with a lot of my views and I have all the confidence in the world, that you would not find one single thing that even you would disagree with.

If you can hold true to this then I can send you a link to just another taste of what we would be writing about.

Ask for that link in your subjevt line so I know your real.

Im also gonna put this ad on other sites because it doesnt have to be a relationship but it will be with someone Im gonna spend alot of time with, and who better than a woman I can be comfortable with.

I dont want anyone to think this is bullshit. I seriously want true and sincere devotion. And here’s something else for ya, I cant count how many times Ive felt comfortable enough with someone that I would spit out the most unbelievable shit, only to hear my girl(or whoever I was with, friends) tell me that, that was the smartest and most remarkable statement they had ever heard and that I should also roll with it. So here I am and Im ready to roll.

Serious Enquiries Only.

Thank-you.

Bye..”

Second Contact

“So your a fake.? Or you really cant be professional enough to respond..?”