Date: 2008-04-04 16:26 Subject: Three quick entries on writing: One: In which my smugness doesn’t last long. Security: Public Tags: writing

Just the other day, I gave Steph some good writing advice and felt very smug about it. Something had happened to one of Steph's characters and she (the character, that is, not Steph) was overcome by wild magic. So I advised Steph not to cure the character straight away. Curing the character would have been easier for the story. It would have enabled the protagonist to get on with what had to happen. But it would have been the wrong thing to do. Keeping the character 'infected' is going to cause all sorts of complications and difficulties for the protag (and for Steph). It's going to get in the way of smooth flow of plot. But it's going to be a whole lot more fun. Nalo Hopkinson referred to this as 'going there'. If you've got something difficult that's going to happen and your instinct is not to do it, you should absolutely do it. Go there. Don't back away.

So, now we fast forward to today. In my book, one of my characters has been bitten by a Martian critter and is unconscious. But I need to get my characters out of the Martian wilderness pretty quickly so I can get to the end of the book. My instinct was to let the character recover straight away. Steph pointed out to me that that was the easy out. But it wasn’t the most fun or dramatic. It wasn't 'going there'.

Suddenly, I was feeling a whole lot less smug.

It's amazing how many books don't 'go there'. A character is about to be kidnapped, but then the baddies fail. The character is about to be robbed, but they manage not to be. They are about to get lost, but then they find the way.

It's not dramatic. It doesn't make the book better. Obstacles have to cause real problems. They have to have consequences or they're not real obstacles. Now I shall tattoo that to the backs of my hands and I may even remember it.

4 Comments | Post A Comment | Add to Memories | Tell a Friend | Link

Date: 2008-04-04 16:26 Subject: Three quick entries on writing: Two: In which I have to be hit over the head to realise the obvious. Security: Public Tags: writing

Steph sent me a fantastic link the other day. It's a blog entry by Mary Hershey about going to an author event by Elizabeth Gilbert. In the Q&A, Gilbert was asked about her intention when writing her bestselling novel Eat, Pray, Love. She revealed that she had written the book for a single friend, quite literally. She had been advised by her younger sister to write to one reader, and she'd taken that advice literally. In every part of her book, she'd written it as though she was writing an extended letter to her friend. She'd decided what to say and how to say it based on how best to explain it to that individual friend.

I'd never thought about writing in this way before, but it makes perfect sense. I've heard authors talk about writing books for themselves, and I've thought in terms of writing for an audience (in fact, this was the very first blog entry I ever did, back in a long-lost blog), but I've never focused it as though I was writing for a single, real person that I actually knew. Doing so makes a lot of sense. Writing is being about being specific rather than generic. We describe the singular rather than the generic when describing a scene ('we passed a sharp-sided valley', for example, rather than, 'we passed sharp-sided valleys'). We write an individual character rather than writing about 'a boy' or 'a girl'. It makes sense to extend this to the book's audience, too.

In fact, how often have you heard authors tell how they wrote a book for their kid or kids and read it to them as they wrote it? When you write for that very specific, individual audience rather than for an undefined mass, it will always be more consistent, accurate and focused. I know this. I knew this. But I may have only finally realised this when the blog entry hit me over the head with it.

10 Comments | Post A Comment | Add to Memories | Tell a Friend | Link

Date: 2008-04-04 16:30 Subject: Three quick entries about writing: Three: In which I feel sympathy for fat-fantasy writers. Security: Public Tags: writing

I think I finally understand what happened to Robert Jordan. I understand why he had so much trouble reaching the end of his 'Wheel of Time' series. I understand why George RR Martin's Song of Ice and Fire keeps getting longer. I understand this because I am trapped in The Book That Will Not End. Every time I think I'm about to make progress, something else happens to complicate it and put the end further back, like Alice, running as fast as possible without getting any closer to the end. Now one of my characters has been bitten by a Martian slug thing, and that's going to add a whole slew of new words. And I can absolutely guarantee that, by the time I through those, a new complication will have arrived.

Don't get me wrong. I think it's good stuff. I wouldn't be writing it if I didn't. It's the right thing to do. It's what stories are.

But. It. Will. Not. End.

P.S. 'Fat-fantasy authors' in the title? These are authors of fat fantasies, right? Not fantasy authors who are fat. Good. Glad we cleared that up. (Not that I don't feel sympathy for fantasy authors who are fat, having put on a few pounds myself in recent years...)

4 Comments | Post A Comment | Add to Memories | Tell a Friend | Link