Authors & Books Blog

Wednesday, June 25, 2008

What questions did you ask, or most want answered, when you were a newbie writer?

When I first started writing, it was purely for myself, an exercise in getting down a story that was circling in my head. I had no real ambitions on being published because I didn’t know then if I was good enough. I simply enjoyed talking with other writers about writing.

It was suggested that I join a critique group, and when I did so originally, it was purely to see if my efforts could be called writing at all and as a novice, I didn’t know what questions to ask or what was required in putting together a commercially viable novel.

My submissions began to attract critiques, which is when I learned what I should do with respects to polishing my own writing. From there, I began to have questions of my own. For instance;

How many points of view should a novel contain?

What is a workable number of characters?

How long should a first novel be?

Does passive voice have a place?

How do I handle conflict to give the story consistent pace?

Do inner thoughts go in italicts?

What exactly is self promotion?

Why are agents so unapproachable – so many have a list on their websites of what you mustn’t send them or be condemned to the slush pile in the sky – forever - but few have encouraging words on what they do want!

Do you outline? If so, describe the process. If not, why not?

Yes, because I write the same way I talk, excessively and I go off on a tangent at any excuse and I end up with a messy, useless piece of work and have to start again.

From the basic idea of a story, I write a synopsis of the beginning, the course of the story and the expected ending. I say expected because sometimes that changes as the chapters evolve with the story.

I open a an Excel Spreadsheet to do this and rough out a list of chapters, then within each one make a list ‘scenes’. The aim is to reach the end of the chapter having achieved specific goals. E.g.

Chapter Three – Second Morning

Lady R and L arrive at the house

L tells MC about her young man she has just met

MC is shocked and suspicious

L is impatient with MC with regard to her mother’s illness

L teases MC about Jack and that she is expected to become engaged to him this summer

If I don’t work this way, Lady R arrives at the house and then I spend the entire chapter talking about her background, her clothes, the way she speaks to the butler – and lose my way. I’ve discarded far more words than I have ever kept in my work, so this helps me focus.

Within each ‘scene’, I then write the narrative, even if the conversations are short and the characters are one dimensional – I just get the ‘bones’ down on paper, even though this first draft will read like a play with stage directions.

Then I go back to the beginning again and work on the characters, describe the settings of where the action takes place, flesh out the conversations, perfect the physical descriptions of the characters, the nuances of expression, their reactions and inner thoughts when something happens etc.

What made you decide to write about the 17th century?

The 1600’s were a time of radical change in England, to social structure and the way people thought. A prosperous middle class evolved who were making their mark through industry, trade and manufacturing who began to demand a say in the running of their country which had always run under a benign, or in some cases not so benign, dictatorship.

The Whigs decided they had a right as men to think for themselves, to live and worship God in the way they chose and have a say in the governing of a country they were helping make wealthy. A straightforward principle to a modern society, but a radical idea at the time, which brought the country into Civil War and the execution of a king

These are principles we take for granted in our modern world, and I was interested in how people lived before men had those rights.

What motivates you to keep writing?

I received a critique from the group this morning which said: and I’m quoting here so she will know exactly who she is:

“I found myself laughing and smiling the whole way through. I dub this a bathtub book. You know, when you start reading in a warm bubbly tub and you keep adding more hot water because you have to read just one more chapter. Before you know it, you’re toes are pruney and your water’s cold, but you’ve read half the book!

A crit like that sends me straight back to the laptop to deliver the next chapter.

How do you make dialogue convincing?

That supposes I do!

Firstly, I decide what the conversation is for and what the characters are trying to get across to each other; is it an argument, a flirtation, is someone conveying information someone. Or is it a dinner party with several characters where their individual personas have to be brought out?

I don’t try and sort out individual phrases at first, I just get the main framework of the conversation down. Then I go back and fine tune it, modify the manner of actual speech, give certain characters clipped speech, have someone insert ‘er’ occasionally to indicate shyness or nervousness. The hardest part is to make everyone sound different so the conversation isn’t bland.

In say, a tea party, people don’t simply talk, they fiddle with teaspoons, they play with their hair, or clothes, or their partner’s hair or clothes, they get up and wander over to a window and admire the view, pick crumbs from the tablecloth, they flirt with someone across the room.

As I’m an historical writer, I have the added problem of making the conversation ‘of the time’. How do I do that? Hmmm that’s harder to describe, but I read lots of historical books which help give me a feel for what is ‘modern speech’ and what is likely to sound right in the period I write in, but without making it a caricature - a sort of 17th Century Jeeves and Wooster.

My dialogue in my seventeenth century novels is very different from the way my Victorian characters speak in my current wip. But that’s the challenge, making it credible so the reader feels they are inside that time frame and not looking at a diluted version.

But you can go too far - I avoid scattering too many ‘historical’ phrases into the story too as it can be distracting – gentle nudges rather than beating the reader over the head with the ‘pon my souls’ and ‘forsooths’.

You can learn more about Anita and her books by visiting her website.

http://www.anitadavison.webeden.co.uk/

Thank you Anita for visiting our blog.