Pete Sutton's Blog, page 9

Writing About Writing About Writing Review 12

Part 12 of an intermittent series where I read or re-read the writing books on my shelf to see if they’re worth keeping. See previous part here

As I said last time round I’m doing NaNoWriMo (currently at 6074 words which is off the pace!) so less reading time available. However I did manage to read Monkeys With Typewriters which allows me to do a mini WAWAW review.

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This book stems from Thomas’s creative writing lectures at the University of Kent and like her fiction books has an interesting premise/idea at the heart but doesn’t quite live up to it. Thomas has split the book into two halves – theory and practise and it’s genesis means it’s aimed at the kind of people who do MA’s.

The theory part sees Thomas do a round up of narrative theory from Aristotle to Propp to Booker and then add her own take with ‘eight basic plots’ (one of which being Modern Realism – which I’d call a mode rather than a plot for the exact same reasons she rejects Irony as a plot) – as with any summary of other people’s ideas there is a lot of elision but it’s a fairly good Cliff Notes version if you can’t be bothered to read the source material – albeit one liberally sprinkled with Thomas’s own views.

In the second part there is the usual sort of writing advice and the interesting idea, which is that novels can be seeded using a story matrix. Basically a glorified version of putting things like character name, location and situation in columns and then choosing one from each column. Except Thomas’s matrix has heading like ‘what is your current obsession’ or ‘your four favourite novels and why.’ Her thesis is an expansion of ‘write what you know.’

I found this idea interesting and maybe I should try it before I knock it but it seems to require a lot of self-reflection and I suspect wouldn’t change enough between novels (if you follow her exact matrix) to generate that many ideas.

Since the summary isn’t needed for me (I’ve read most of the sources) and the general writing advice is mostly variation on a theme from more focused books I think this is for the discard pile. I may try the matrix thing before getting rid of it finally but it’s not a keeper.

Drop a comment with your favourite writing book or tip here or email me via the Contact page. If you’re a publisher or Indie Author and would like me to review your writing book drop me a line!

NaNoWriMo

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My Writing About Writing About Writing has slowed down the last few weeks because of two things. Firstly the Bristol Festival of Literature – which went really well, I’ll post a link to the videos when they’re available. Also prep for NaNoWriMo – I’ve failed at doing this a couple of times in the past (due to lack of prep I’ve guessed) and in one case it actually demotivated me and I wrote less than my usual wordcount. However I’m going to give it another go. I have a couple of novellas to write (on a write for hire contract) and some short story deadlines so I’m going to use Nano as a productivity boost.

I have read a bit of Scarlett Thomas’s Monkeys with Typewriters so maybe during November I’ll be able to finish it and post another Writing About Writing About Writing. I’ll also be reading No Plot? No Problem! Because that’s by the founder of Nano and about Nano.

I’ll also be writing a novel pitch (for that same write for hire company) and editing a novel for Grimbold Books. I’d like to get back to Tales for The Ferryman (a novella in progress) and I’m continuing to research for the book I want to write set in the 1600’s. So a busy end to the year awaits.

Next year I’ve been given the opportunity to pitch for a choose your own adventure style novel and I’ve stocked up on some examples of such novels and have been trying to find a good guide on how to write them. Drop me a comment with your favourite CYOA book and if you have any suggestions on a How To write such books.

Writing About Writing About Writing Review 11

Part 11 of an intermittent series (although it does seem to be fairly mittent until now) where I read or re-read the writing books on my shelf to see if they’re worth keeping. See previous part here

Getting this in before I probably neglect this blog for NaNoWriMo (although it’s not National and I’m not writing a Novel.) I’ve tried and failed at Nano before, more than once. Once famously writing less in November than my usual monthly wordcount. And yet I’m going for it again this year – mainly because I have December deadlines on a couple of projects – hence the ‘it’s not a novel’ – although it’s near as dammit 50k words if I hit all the projects I want to do so, yay?

Anyway back to the subject. As I said last time I’d read the other Maass book:

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Which looks great, was written after 21st Century novel and is a better book. But it does suffer from some of the same problems. It tends towards more lit crit than how to. In this one Maass says some people Show – and that can work, some people Tell – and that can work too but what you need to do is write in an “Other” mode which creates an emotional attachment between you and the reader. Yeah? How? Again his exhortations to ‘write better’ (in this case imbue your words with the power to create emotion) aren’t backed up with good concrete methods on how to do that. Instead you get out of context small excerpts of books he’s enjoyed which demonstrate good writing – except, taken out of context, they don’t create the emotions he tells you they do. So, another for the discard pile.

I also read Save the Cat Writes a Novel

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I’ve not read the original but have heard good things so when I saw a version for novelists rather than screenwriters I thought I’d give it a go. It’s another formula for the 3 Act structure basically – although engagingly written and a good explainer of the nuts and bolts of 3 act (with 15 individual beats and where they come in the various acts) it is in essence another formula for the 3 act structure. If you don’t have a plotting structure book it’s probably as good a one as any to buy – I’ll make a decision on this one when I re-read my ‘how to story’ books like Story by Mckee and The Writer’s Journey and others. (So again this was a little tangent.)

That’s my generic How To nuts & bolts books done – I have culled before and, as per a previous post, the Norton book – The Making of A Story – is all you need as a guide to the basics I think.

Next up are the books by individual authors on ‘How to Write’ – these ones on the writing shelf are by authors that are not on my fiction shelves, and in one case by an author I’ve not read.

Which is the one I read first:

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This is… interesting. Pierre comes across as very much an individual and the book is a very idiosyncratic view of writing. I enjoyed it. I don’t think it will deserve a re-read and I didn’t really get anything useful from it. It did make me want to read one of his fiction books though. So again, another for the ever-growing discard pile.

Next up Scarlett Thomas and Chuck Palahniuk.

Drop a comment with your favourite writing book or tip here or email me via the Contact page. If you’re a publisher or Indie Author and would like me to review your writing book drop me a line!

Talking of story structure – I’m moderating a panel at the Bristol Festival of Literature which will be discussing story with writers that work in different media. It’s free so check it out and grab a ticket here

Writing About Writing About Writing Review 10

Part 10 (although the numbering is becoming ever more inaccurate due to going off at tangents. This one includes a mini-tangent) of an intermittent series where I read or re-read the writing books on my shelf to see if they’re worth keeping. See previous part here

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As I hinted in the last blog I’ve been re-reading this book (it’s at least the third or fourth time I’ve read it.) The writing is idiosyncratic perhaps but Swain’s main ideas on ‘motivation reaction units,’ and Scene and Sequel really are the nuts and bolts you need as a writer. That makes this book an essential purchase. I’ve seen Swain’s ideas on e.g. Scene and Sequel pushed by many others, it really is foundational. There are issues – the later chapters are not as good as the first half as the book, and there is that idiosyncrasy – Swain is VERY fond of putting everything into lists for example. There’s also a distasteful racist joke at one point (Swain was a pulp writer writing in the 50’s – that doesn’t excuse it of course but does explain how it got through the editing process.) If you want to get the foundational skills buy this book.

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If Swain puts fiction under a microscope Maass, in this book – Writing 21st Century Fiction, seems to be like searching for a diffuse signal with a radio telescope. Maass’s premise and set up for this book is that 21st Century Fiction is genre-blending and genre-transcending (as if no-one in the 19th and 20th centuries had ever thought of writing genre-defying books.) Specifically that 21st Century fiction is genre books written as literary fiction. He bases this premise on the types of books that have appeared on the NYT besteller lists (cherry picking the ones that fit the premise and ignoring those that don’t.) The book was published in 2012 – so it’s a little premature to define 100 years of fiction based on the first 12 years of the century I feel.

There is some good stuff in here but essentially he’s trying to talk to literary fiction writers and tell them what to take from genre to improve their books and, at the same time, talk to genre writers and tell them what to take from literary fiction. But essentially the core message is that literary fiction being character-led needs more plot and genre as plot-led needs more character. That’s not a new idea. It also makes massive generalisations about both styles of fiction and an assumption that the majority of books exist at either one end of the spectrum or the other – when of course the opposite is true, the majority of genre books have deep character development and the majority of litfic books have a plot.

The end of chapter tips on how to improve your prose are of the style of -“Make your writing better by being a better writer” – seriously. As an example: “What’s a moment in your story that sparkles in your mind? Spend an hour with it. Polish. Buff. Shine.” Er, OK, How do you polish? How do you buff? How do you shine?

I remembered this book being a lot better than it turned out to be…

I bought this after reading and enjoying another Maass book (The Emotional Craft of Fiction) which I’ll be reading next.

One for the discard pile.

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The slight tangent here is away from the How to Fiction books and into a How to be a writer book, of the specific sub-type – how to hack your process to be a more prolific writer. There is a lot of good stuff in here but the core of the ‘system’ is basically to buy a filing cabinet and lots of manila folders and it all seems a little too analogue. I mean there are lots of tips on how to effectively use calendars, task management software, Email, and writing software and some interesting things to say about writing while travelling but the great idea, much trumpeted throughout the book, to “take a weekend off to get organised” is basically ‘file your paperwork.’ If, like me, the vast majority of your ‘paperwork’ is online – it’s not a very useful system. Still I did pick up a few tips I’d not seen elsewhere so reading the book was useful. But not a keeper.

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My search for a good book on how to write Interactive Fiction continues. I’ve been given the opportunity to pitch an IF book to a publisher (another secret project) and I feel that the only way to learn how to do it is to read a lot of IF and retro-engineer. This ‘book’ is 80 pages long and about a third of those pages are one paragraph and lots of white space. Another third is quoted material from the author’s IF books and out of the rest I maybe found one or two tips. Don’t be conned into buying this book.

Writing About Writing About Writing – a slight detour

Part of an intermittent series where I read or re-read the writing books on my shelf to see if they’re worth keeping. See previous part here

I’m calling this a slight detour as I’m adding some thoughts about writing books that I’ve read that are not really in the nut&bolts section (in which I’m currently re-reading Swain’s Techniques of the Selling Writer, which I’ll talk about in the next blog post in the series – but, spoiler alert, it’s excellent and I recommend every writer to read it)

I pre-ordered Tim Waggoner’s Writing in The Dark because I saw it being advertised in a writers group on Facebook.

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I’m so glad I got this book – it’s an excellent guide to writing dark fiction and, if horror is your thing, you need this book on your shelf. Waggoner’s publisher also put on a mini-con with Waggoner as guest of honour which I attended and it was a blast. Some of what Waggoner discusses can be applied to any fiction (finding an emotional core, how to write action scenes, how to avoid cliché) but, as he says more than once himself, he’s writing for a specific audience – people who want to write horror. It’s also interspersed with short interviews with lots of published horror authors who were asked two questions: What makes good horror and what tips they’d give a new horror author. I got a lot out of this book and I’ll definitely be re-reading certain chapters again, I feel the tips in here will make me a better writer for sure.

On the other hand

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I also read this book – been meaning to for a while. Guy N Smith is probably best known for the series of books he did about giant killer crabs (I loved them as a young teenager) this book is generic, dated and not very useful. He skims over the topics and because it was written in the 90’s the information about publishing is very out of date. This went onto the discard pile and I don’t recommend it at all.

I also read a couple of other writing books:

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This little book basically gives the standard hero’s journey and then how to apply that to a Choose Your Own Adventure book. I didn’t get much out of this to be honest. The links in the ebook didn’t work but I’ve got a lot more out of the author’s website. If you’d like to know how to write a CYOA this isn’t the book to learn it.

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The art of editing by Tim Groenland was recommended to me and it’s very much a deep dive into the editorial relationship between two iconic authors and their respective editors. It’s an impressive feat of research and Groenland has obviously immersed himself in this. But it’s a little dry and it is quite niche, I think if you’d like to specialise as an editor you might get something out of this – otherwise it’s one for die hard Carver/Wallace fans. My early stories were compared to Carver (flatteringly) but having read this book I think they were more Lish than Carver. I got something out of the book – but it’s not one for a wide audience.

Drop a comment with your favourite writing book or tip here or email me via the Contact page. If you’re a publisher or Indie Author and would like me to review your writing book drop me a line!

Bristol Festival of Literature

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As ever I’ve been helping organise Bristol Festival of Literature and the programme for 2020 has just been released. Check it out.

There is a a Writer’s Retreat and a Climate Writing workshop among other great contect, and I’ll be hosting a panel on storytelling across different media

As all events are free and online you can attend from anywhere and all you need is time and a computer that can run Zoom. Sign up for the events via Eventbrite.

Writing About Writing About Writing Review 9

Part 9 of an intermittent series where I read or re-read the writing books on my shelf to see if they’re worth keeping. See previous part here

As I previously reported I’ve been reading the How to Nuts & Bolts book The Making of a Story

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This has the standard creative writing topics – description, Point of View, how to begin a story, characters etc. And each chapter has three parts – instruction, exercise and reading like a writer (which includes essays and short stories) – having re-read this I see why it’s the only really nuts and bolts guide on my shelf – it’s comprehensive and covers all the basics. I heartily recommend it.

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I also read Aspects of the Novel by EM Forster. In any writing guide which discusses plot and character will reference this little book. Forster describes the difference between story and plot (The king died then the queen died is different to the king died then the queen died of grief) and round and flat characters.

The book originated from a series of lectures and although it was written in the 20’s there is a more conversational tone than most books of that era. Although there is some useful stuff in here it’s more a book of literary criticism rather than a how to guide and therefore it’s gone on the discard pile. I’ve read it twice now and that feels like one time too many.

The last book in this review is Classical Literary Criticism

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Which I must confess I only skimmed – reading classical text is an odd one. Of course Aristotle, Horace and Longinus have important things to say and although they form the basis of Western thought on the topic these aren’t massively readable. It’s writing that tends to slip off my brain so I decided that because the text is easily found on the internet if I need it I don’t need this book on the shelf.

I was going to stick to the classics and read Bird by Bird by Anne Lamott and Writing Down the Bones by Natalie Goldberg but I’ve remembered flicking through the intros that the subtitle of Lamott’s: “Some instructions on writing and life,” is accurate – these are more ‘how to be a writer,’ rather than ‘how to write’ books. Therefore I’m going to re-read a couple more books that lean more to the How to Write content before going to those.

Drop a comment with your favourite writing book or tip here or email me via the Contact page. If you’re a publisher or Indie Author and would like me to review your writing book drop me a line!

What I’m Reading

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I was lucky to have a copy sent to me by the publisher. I was very taken with Strandberg’s Blood Cruise and I’m happy to inform you that The Home is also excellent – albeit a quieter and more intimate horror.

“Once inseparable, Joel and Nina haven’t spoken in twenty years. When Joel’s mother Monika develops dementia, he has no choice but to return to his home town. Monika needs specialist care, and that means Pineshade – which also means Joel is going to have to deal with his one-time best friend, for Nina works there.

It’s not long before Monika’s health deteriorates – she starts having violent, terrifying outbursts, and worse, she appears to know things she couldn’t possibly know. It’s almost as if she isn’t herself any more… but of course, that’s true of most of the residents at Pineshade.”

If you’re anything like me the possibility of ending your life with dementia in the company of strangers is a real fear. Or that you may be called upon to send a parent to such a place. So a horror story set in an old people’s home, where the residents are losing themselves, is an excellent setting for pushing those buttons. Strandberg has a talent for creating believable characters and although the action isn’t as gore splattered as Blood Cruise there were still some very wince-making descriptions.

I very much recommend this.

Next up for me is Ian Dunt’s How to be a Liberal which I pre-ordered

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I’ve been reading politics.co.uk since 2016 (I wonder what massive political upheaval caused that?) and thought I’d try a longer piece of Dunt’s writing. I’ve only read the first few chapters but I think that the introduction – of how Nationalism consists of six lies (individuals don’t exist, the world is simple, you mustn’t question, institutions conspire against the people, difference is bad and there is no such thing as objective truth) should be taught in schools. I feel the current march of illiberal regimes, ‘fake news,’ creeping fascism and other such ills are a failure of our education system. Anyway – this is currently the book I have a bookmark in – heavy subject but written in an easy to read and engaging style.

Interview with Rexx Deane

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Tell us about your book (what’s the sales pitch?)

A tsunami on a space station.
An explosion with no trace of the bomber.
Cyber-security expert Sebastian knows evidence doesn’t magically disappear, yet when he and his colleague Aryx, a disabled ex-marine, travel the galaxy to find the cause, there seems to be no other explanation.
Can they unravel the mystery before his family, home, and an entire race succumbs to an ancient foe?

Synthesis:Weave is the first book in a trilogy with an unusual blend of science fiction, space opera and magic realism.

If you could be a character in the book who would you be and why?

I’d want to be Sebastian, one of the main characters – his life follows the pattern many people dream of, with their work suddenly taking them on a new and exciting path. He escapes the restrictions of a fixed work schedule for something more dynamic, and gets to explore exotic new places. He also uncovers a mystery that turns his world upside-down, but in a positive way, and while disruptive to them, gets to take his closest friends along for the ride. Those are all things that I really want to do (maybe not by leaving the planet!)

What did you learn about writing by writing this book?

Virtually everything I know about writing! One of the most important things was not to overdo it and not to show off what you know, no matter how clever you think it is. Story comes first.

Do you have a set writing process, if so what is it?

I take a lot of random notes as I have ideas for a story. Once I’ve got enough notes for scenes and events, I try to cluster them together (quite often on strips of paper) and arrange them into threads. It can be a struggle to get them to fit the three act story structure at times, but I find it’s the best way. After that, I start inserting things between plot points where I think they might cause the character problems (and conflict), then I start my first draft.

I tend to write the first draft in one go and then go back over editing it three or four times. Recently, I’ve started pausing after an act, going back over for an edit, then continuing the first draft’s next act – it helps to keep the story fresher than it would going through the entire book in one go.

I write in plain text files, not using Word or other ‘heavy’ software, so I can write on any device. It’s formatted with LaTeX markup, too, so testing what it’s going to look like in a novel is as simple as pressing ‘build’ in the software I use, and it spits out a nice print-formatted pdf. When I’m happy with it, my editor gets it and we collaborate with tracked changes to get it up to scratch before I finalise it ready for publishing.

What’s one question you think would be really fun to answer, but has never been asked of you?

Where do you get the ideas for your locations? I’d then drag them all over the countryside, pointing out the weird signs and strange bits of terrain I’d come across.

What made you choose to write your book as SciFi?

From the previous answer, a weird road sign for a place called Sollers Hope. It sounded like a far-off mining colony. That coupled with having recently re-watched Babylon 5 and thinking, “I’d like to write a book, something like Babylon 5.” So I was pretty much locked into it from that point.

How much research did you do before writing the book and how did you go about it?

On the topics I wrote about, almost none, since I was drawing from experience and knowledge I’d picked up from years of being interested in science. The only thing I researched was how to write a novel – a slow process to do while writing. Every draft improved a different facet as I studied books on the craft.

Do you remember the first story you told? What was it?

I think I wrote something based on a computer game, around age 11. I seemed to be quite drawn to fleshing out the worlds in old computer games at the time, but never really had a clue how to write.

What are you reading? Who do you think we should be reading (apart from you!)?

I started reading Pratchett’s Discworld novels – yes, I’m so late to the party everyone got drunk and already went home. If you haven’t read any of his novels, you must, especially if you think writing has to be incredibly serious and strict.

In one sentence what’s your best piece of advice for writers?

If you ever feel like you’re getting writer’s block, make a change – change writing medium; write a flow chart of what could happen next with wildly varying options and pick the path with most conflict; change what you think you know about the story.

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A tiding of tidings

As I thought would happen – I’ve not yet finished “The Making of a Story” as the next book in the Writing about Writing about Writing Review (it is 600+ pages long) so instead for this week’s blog – a brief bit of news.

I’ve been editing a novel for Grimbold (another author’s – a 3rd book in a series) which has been an interesting experience (doing a 3rd book that is – I’ve edited novels before) – meaning I had to read the first two books before tackling the 3rd. That’s what’s been keeping me busy the last few weeks.

But at the same time I’ve now passed back the proof of the re-issue of A Tiding of Magpies to the editor so I’m hopeful it’ll be out soon. It’s been interesting to revisit the book – I believe this re-issue is an improvement. I’ve removed stories that didn’t fit the theme and added stories that do (including one written especially for this edition) and I think it now works better.

I’ve also been approached with an exciting new opportunity (under NDA) that will keep me very busy in the near future.

I’ve also written several new stories over the last few months – and now need to polish them to send out on submissions. So, fingers crossed, there’ll be news of sales in the next few months.

As ever October is a busy month for me – and September is ramping up but I shall be around this weekend at Writing in The Dark so see some of you there no doubt.

So, until the next WAWAW blogpost – keep reading and keep writing!