The Wandering Writer

I spent the first few days in Paris, rushing around, trying to fit in as much as I could. It was great, and I saw many things that I know will feed into my writing, and my stories. But it has gradually been filtering into my mind how much that rushing had become a habit in my "normal" life. Work consumed many of my hours, and sucked out a fair amount of creative energy too, and I'd got into the habit of rushing through life, trying to get all my work done in order to find time and space for writing. And then feeling pressured to make every writing minute count. Two hours to write? Better make sure I get at least 1000 words out of it.

So if you're wondering why there is a picture of a church up above, that's part of the slowing down. I was wandering on Saturday afternoon, knowing I had to collect my bags and find my next abode (an apartment this week) and not willing to cram in another museum. Instead, I walked around Les Halles and found this church. Well, "found" is probably the wrong word. It's a pretty big church!! St Eustache. You could be forgiven for thinking it was Notre Dame. Inside, the arched ceilings are several hundred feet above, and the organ at the other end is immense.

No wonder those who worshipped in cathedrals or churches like this maintained their awe. How could you not? The building itself is a wonder. And the sense of peace and quiet had me sitting and being quiet too for quite some time. That's a good thing for a writer.
One of the things I have discovered I really like about Paris is the squares and gardens. I can be walking anywhere, and turn a corner to find a garden like this, open to anyone to come in and sit for a while. Maybe it's because I've spent too long with gum trees and drought-tolerant gardens (which equates to very few flowers and pretty boring plants, let's face it). But every time I have found one of these spaces, I've had to stop and sit awhile.

In A Writer's Paris by Eric Maisel, he talks about writing in Paris, about finding places to sit and contemplate and write. I had such an amazing hot chocolate this morning that I just had to write about it! But it's not so much the experiences that are inspiring my writing. It is simply the time and the headspace. I have almost stopped myself clock-watching (not yet but I'm trying), but I am definitely becoming far more aware of how much I needed to slow down mentally, and just be in my own space at last.

Blogging from Paris

I was asked today, "Why do you want to go there?" Meaning Paris. As opposed to London, maybe, or Hawaii. I guess it goes back to high school. I learned French for four years (and am trying to put it into practice here) and always wanted to visit. I had a teacher in my fourth year who did lots of French things with us - we had a Bastille Day dinner, for instance. Then, when I was travelling in my early 20s, I ended up whizzing through France in a day. I could've been anywhere! (And it put me off travelling with other people for many, many years.)
So maybe France has always been "the thing I have to do".

Anyway, I'm here now, and am still having to tell myself every day, "I am in Paris, I am in Paris". Because I can't quite believe it. All the same, I have come home at the end of every day with very sore feet, and am usually asleep by 9pm. Restoring energy for the next day. Of course, one of the things on my Visit List was the Catacombs (hence the photo above of skulls and bones). What I didn't realise was that they are also part of the vast underground quarries from the 1800s, and you have to walk many hundreds of metres underground, through narrow tunnels with low roofs, to get to the actual Catacombs. Not an experience for the claustrophobic.

Suffice to say, when I emerged above ground again, I was two Metro stations away from where I started! I've also been to the Picasso museum (somehow ended up going around it backwards - chronologically that is - which gave me a whole new perspective on how his styles and subjects developed). The Museum of the Middle Ages was fantastic, and gave me lots of material for my new book, as well as ideas and images.

Today was Louvre Day. I started at the bottom end of the Tuileries garden and called in to the L'Orangerie, mainly because there were Monets there. Little did I know that there was actually an amazing exhibition of eight huge panels, in two oval rooms. The largest painting was around 20 metres long, the smallest about 8. The rest of the paintings on the floor below were a mix of Cezanne, Gaugin, Renoir and a few others. An excellent collection.

Then the Louvre. It took me half an hour to finally orient myself so I could work out where the things were that I wanted to see. This photo above is the Mona Lisa. Yes, that's her in the background somewhere. I thought it was more fascinating to watch the crowd pushing to get close and take "their own photo", even if it was with a mobile phone. The mythology around this painting is fascinating, and Dan Brown had added to it a thousand-fold. It's a painting. One among many, many paintings, just in the Louvre, let alone the rest of the world.

The Louvre itself was almost more interesting to me than the artworks. Many of the rooms have been restored to their original decor (or whatever you want to call it), which was stunning in many cases. I couldn't help thinking about today's architecture - the corners, clean lines, spare design, the total minimalism we think is style. And comparing it to, for example, Napoleon's quarters, where every surface is covered in paintings, gilt, carving, fabric wallpaper, more paintings, more gilt and ornamentation. And then there are the chandeliers!! I am writing in my journal, writing poems, soaking it all in - adding to what I feel has been a rather depleted imagination recently. We'll see what comes out at the other end.

Writing and Travelling

At my house right now, there are three To-Do lists in operation. That's because I'm about to fly off overseas for nearly four weeks, and the preparation is a nightmare (but only, I might add, because I am obsessive and have organised the whole trip myself, instead of leaving it in the hands of a travel agent - such are the self-induced nightmares of the person who wants to do their own thing). So today I have been cancelling newspapers (husband says he won't bother reading them), paying bills (husband won't notice they are overdue) and buying extra cat food (husband may send cats out to earn their own living, like the chooks).

But I know that once I actually climb onto the aeroplane, after having several hissy fits over things I think I have forgotten to organise, I will relax and all will be in the past. There is something about being out of tangible reach (urgent emails don't really count) that suddenly releases you from the real world. Once you have left, the most urgent thing is what movie to watch, or what book to read. Such a life of luxury, where the luxury is free time!

But I am travelling as a writer - not a travel writer, researching hotels and restaurants and finding bargains for others. I am a writer on the journey of discovery, of finding new places and seeing with new eyes, and writing about what stirs me, what makes me feel different. Some months ago, I read Eric Maisel's A Writer's Paris, and it was wonderful. Today I picked it up, flicked through some pages and thought, No, I can't bear to read one more thing about Paris. Now I want to be there for myself.

I have plans for very definite things I want to write, and also specific places and times I want to research for a book I am working on. But mostly I want to soak up the experience of a different world, and reflect it through both words and photographs. A book may come out of it, or two. But it is the immersion and dreaming that counts in a writer's life - the time when the urge to write takes over from everything else - deadlines, expectations, publishability. It's about flights of language and imagery, capturing the elusive, and carrying pen and notebook everywhere so as not to let that moment of fire escape without it first singeing the page.
Stay tuned. Who knows what will appear here in the coming weeks!

Comedy and Crime

The only session I attended at the Writers' Festival this year (apart from schools sessions with children's and YA writers) was listed as a spotlight on Mark Billingham. I've enjoyed his crime novels, featuring Tom Thorne as the main character, although I was a bit disappointed in the latest, In the Dark. It's a stand-alone, and uses several viewpoint characters. About halfway through, it starts to zero in on two main characters, but for a while it seemed a bit aimless and all over the place. Still, I imagine any series character needs a rest now and then.

The session actually turned out to be on comedy and crime (was this the MC's idea, perhaps?) and also featured Michael Robotham, and Billingham's UK editor who looked a bit nonplussed at being on the stage. Billingham has been a standup comedian for a few years, and was obviously used to performing. Part of his talk consisted of reading out emails he has received from various odd people over the years (odd being an understatement), and was very funny. However, MR didn't let the topic faze him at all, and proceeded to tell stories about his days as a journalist.

Both of them did a great job of talking about comedy vs crime, horror vs humour, and why a funny line in the midst of tragedy works so well. And there was nothing academic about it at all. It was an entertaining hour of storytelling. There certainly is a knack to pleasing the crowd, I think - mostly they are readers, and if they've read your books, they're not going to be interested in a re-hash of the plots, or a publicity plug (which I have seen many writers do over the years, to audience disappointment). If you have given many such talks, like Emily Rodda has, it must be hard to find new topics. You end up hoping the audience is new and won't have heard your anecdotes before.

Melbourne Writers' Festival 08

Last year I went a bit berserk. I went to twelve sessions. A wide range from poetry to crime to short fiction - all sorts. This year? I searched through the program, found maybe five things I was interested in and booked ... one. The program seemed laden with worthy sessions on issues and politics and topics I felt I should be keen on, but couldn't really be bothered. It all felt a bit academic and D&M. On any day there were two things of interest, they were at opposite ends of the day. Even I can't waste five hours drinking coffee and wandering through the bookshop, trying to keep my credit card in my pocket. So instead I had a look at the schools program for the festival, a challenge in itself since it's all on the website and is like trying to grapple with a many-headed monster.

I booked four school sessions, and attended three today (luckily you don't have to be a student or a teacher - anyone can go). There was I, and some teachers and a few hundred school kids from Grade 6 through to ... bigger teens, maybe Year 10 or so. Session 1: I've never read anything by Joseph Delaney (and neither had 99% of the audience, funnily enough) but I'd heard of his series which begins with The Spook's Apprentice. As soon as JD sussed out that hardly any of us had read his books, he quickly gave us a tidy summary of the characters and plot that sounded pretty good, and then talked a lot about background, characters, dialogue, research, all in a lovely Lancashire accent (he mentioned lads a lot, which made me laugh).

He was a teacher for many years before selling his first novel and eventually turning to writing full-time, and it showed. He talked fast, but had lots of interesting anecdotes and examples, and kept everyone focused. He had multiple rejections for adult novels before turning to fantasy for kids, and has found his niche, if you can call having books published in 20 countries a niche.

The second session was Melina Marchetta and Rachel Cohn, talking about characters, but for me, this session never really gelled. I'm not sure why. Maybe it was because they talked about characters in that vague way that writers sometimes do (the characters talked to me and told me what to write) and the audience seemed a bit sceptical about it all. The joint reading was very, very fast, hard to follow at times, and the woman up the top giving the wind-up signal didn't help. A teacher standing next to me in the coffee queue had been to another session where a writer dropped the F word, which apparently didn't go down very well.

The third session was Emily Rodda, and many of the kids in the audience were Grade 6 or Year 7, and were clearly big fans. Emily got applause just for walking onto the stage! She talked about ideas, and the questions she often gets asked. She said many kids ask her where she gets her ideas from, but only one has ever asked how she makes her stories so believable. She said it's because she herself totally believes in the worlds and the characters she creates, and it just naturally comes through in the storytelling. Question time showed dozens of hands raised, with only a few able to be answered - a very popular session.

Afterwards, I thought more about that concept of believing in the world you have created, and I think she is absolutely right. The two novels I have really struggled with have both been ones that I have felt I never entered into entirely, heart and soul. Yet with others, like the Tracey Binns stories, I can see that school, those kids and teachers, as if they are real, and it feels so easy to dive into that world and write from within it. There are stories and novels I have written where I have felt that same experience, and even though some have been rejected and may never get published, I doubt I will ever give up on them. They have been "real" writing experiences, and I have to hope that one day I'll find an editor who will engage with that story world in the same way.

Lu Rees Archives in Canberra

One of the interesting places in Canberra for children's writers (and students and readers too) is the Lu Rees Archives, which are in the University of Canberra Library building. Among other things, the Archives holds drafts of manuscripts and illustrations, as well as books of historical interest.
These are all books by Ethel Turner, who wrote, among other books, Seven Little Australians. It's now considered an Australian children's classic.
And this is Margaret Wild, who donated many of her papers to the Archives last week. Here, she is standing in front of a display of her picture book, Fox, illustrated by Ron Brooks. It's one of my favourite books, and has won many awards.

Canberra at Minus 4 Degrees

Frosty football field!
Three days in Canberra whizzed by. I did ten sessions, covering six different schools (at one school I did three writing workshops in one day) and had a great time. Everything is amazingly well-organised, with volunteers to ferry the writers and illustrators around (unless you are foolish enough to venture out on your own - Canberra is pretty spread out, and it's easy to misjudge travel times). The kids were all great, and I had a range from Grade 2 up to Grade 6.

On Tuesday evening we all went to the Lu Rees Archives for a donation event. Margaret Wild handed over a lot of her papers - drafts, manuscripts, etc - and also someone who had bought an illustration from Lucy Goosey by Ann James then donated it to the Archives. We were given a tour of the Archives, which are in the University of Canberra Library, and it struck me how much they are managing to cram into what seems like a very small space. It'd be great if the uni could find another 2oo square metres or so for them!

After an exciting Friday last week (the CBCA Awards where I didn't have to make a speech, thank goodness - I was focusing on not tripping over when I went up for my Honour certificate), I spent the weekend with my family who had flown in for the occasion. Then off to Canberra. Trying to be healthy and remove some of the sludge in my system, I went for early morning walks each day (hi, Craig!). The first morning there was a frost, the second morning there was an even bigger frost. Unfortunately, my photos don't do the icy ground justice. My fingers may have been freezing but I did enjoy the VERY crisp air.

The Awards are Announced!

On Friday the CBCA Awards for 2008 were announced, and I'm now allowed to tell everyone that my book (above) won an Honour Book award in the Younger Readers category.
Yaayyy!
Full awards list here.
Only the winners had to make a speech, but Aaron Blabey brought the house down when he showed us his first draft of Pearl Barley and Charlie Parsley - written on a long strip of toilet paper because that was the only paper he could find when the full idea hit him (first notes were on the back of his boarding pass for his plane trip)!

Fear of Success

A few years ago, I had a great day in San Antonio with two writer friends, talking books and writing, and how do you cram writing into a jam-packed day - all that stuff that writers share and complain about, when they're not eating cakes to celebrate each other's successes (well, it was San Antonio so we ate burritos instead). One of the things we looked at was an exercise in a writing book about what do you anticipate and fear most about achieving your writing dreams. In other words, when you have plenty of books published and are (maybe) making a living from your writing, what will you be happy about and what do you think the down sides are going to be.

It was very interesting, not least because each of us had entirely different ideas on the subject. The exercise, by the way, is in Word Work by Bruce Holland Rogers. He calls it Pig Will and Pig Won't, and as you can guess, I have just found all my notes from that day, which got me thinking. We talked about what it might be like to be J.K. Rowling, who now can't go to the supermarket in peace. But she is the exception. However, as a successful writer, there are other things to fear. Like being signed up for a two or three book contract and not being able to deliver. Or writing a second novel after a very successful first, and it gets terrible reviews and your publisher hates you.

I often hear people say, "Oh, when you get published, all your problems are over." No, you just get a different set of problems! But one thing that no one talks about much is the fear of getting published. As long as you are writing only for you, you can do whatever you like. You can walk around all day in your PJs or trackie pants, you can ignore your personal grooming, you can let your fear of public speaking rule the roost and never have to confront it. You can choose to write, or not to write. Nobody is waiting for your book. Nobody cares except you.

But once you send it out, and it gets accepted, the rules change. You need to be presentable, you need to grit your teeth and work with an editor, you need to do publicity stuff - and these days, you can't kid yourself you can get away with being a recluse or a grunge eccentric. It's in your contract that you do publicity and they expect you to do it well. So there's a lot of pay-off in just writing and rewriting your book, year after year, believing that one day it will be ready. One day you'll be ready. Just not yet.

Branding or Blanding?

A few years ago, series for kids started to get "hot". We'd had the Babysitters' Club and Saddle Club for a long while, and my daughter had other series on her bookshelves (usually the theme was either animals or diaries/penpals). But then series started to become the thing. We moved from books to collectibles, with the idea that a kid who had two or three would want the whole lot, or as many as Mum or Dad would buy them. Kind of like bubblegum cards, but it was books.

Some of the early series writers, like R.L. Stine and Ann Martin, had to give way to books that had no "name" author. It was the brand that counted. Or the concept. After years of telling us that fairies were old-hat, suddenly fairies and pixies and elves were spilling off the shelves in all kinds of colours and glittery bits. The current bling series is Go Girls, but if you move up a notch, age-wise, you'll get Gossip Girls and the like.

One of my favourite series is Junie B. Jones, bad (intentionally) grammar and all. The Magic Tree House is immensely popular with kids, and I can see why. It's history and magic all tied together, for 6-8 year olds. I've read quite a few series books over the past few years, more out of curiosity than anything else. As a writer, you can't help but wonder: a) what the attraction is for kids, b) what the quality of writing is like, and c) could I come up with something like this?

I did try. I came up with what I thought was a good concept, some interesting characters, and the first book - all great stuff to show an editor, who was interested at the time. Her eventual response? Bland. I'd played it way too safe, trying to either emulate what was already out there or stick too close to what had already been done. That's the thing about publishing - the good editors are looking for the next new/different thing, and the editors who just want more of the same aren't who you want to work with, mostly.

So what is a series? Mostly - it's about branding, I think. It's why you get series with a bunch of different author names on it and no one cares. Penguin have several chapter book series and none of the authors get their "name" from being published in them. The kids recognise the distinctive die-cut covers first, then they say, "Oh, you wrote that!" R.L. Stine is a very distinctive name in series fiction for kids, but any kid will immediately equate his name with horror - scary stuff. If he ever tried to write, say, nice horse books, his readers would be greatly disappointed. They're ready for blood and guts (but not actual death).

We hear a lot about branding these days. I teach it to students - gee, I even have a Powerpoint on it! And I've done a couple of seminars on branding for writers. Has any of that led me to developing my own brand? Nup. Wish it had. But I'm caught in my own loop - I'd like some kind of recognisable "thing" about my books, but I want to be free to write whatever I want. That means everything from picture books for toddlers to edgy YA. I've had both published. It's a bit hard to find a brand for myself that covers both of those areas, let alone chapter books about very small pirates and award-winning verse novels!

I look at children's writers like Morris Gleitzman and Andy Griffiths, both of whom write very recognisable books aimed at (mostly) 10-12 year old boys. That's their thing, and they are doing very well at it. Sonya Hartnett writes very literary novels for readers 16+ and adults. While she has been complaining for years that she doesn't earn enough from them, winning the Astrid Lindgren recently should be enough to make her happy. And the thing is, the one book she did write out of her "zone" was an erotic novel for adults that sparked a lot of publicity, mostly bad.

So branding can be both good and bad. It can garner you a loyal following, sometimes that will spread into million-seller books. I love Ian Rankin's books, and I always enjoy reading about his character, Rebus. Would I read a Rankin book that wasn't about Rebus? If it was crime, probably. If it was romance, probably not. Writers who write the same kind of book, over and over, will grow a fan base. One that could well turn on them if they step out of their chosen field. Or produce a book that the fans don't like. I was interested to read, for example, of the backlash against Stephanie Meyer's latest book in her vampire series.

I think the biggest problem that writers face with branding is not so much being forced to stay in their recognised genre and type of book, but that in finding themselves there, they end up writing stuff that is sub-standard in order to feed the mob. And for new writers, the danger is what I encountered - writing "safe" in order to try and break in. In this time of "hot and new", editors don't want safe - they want innovative and different. That means taking risks and hoping someone loves what you're trying to do (and lying awake, night after night, coming up with ideas and throwing them away because they've been done already).

I have two series now, both accidental. One is the chapter book series about The Littlest Pirate, the other is about a character called Tracey Binns. My biggest challenge is to keep the characters fresh and new for me, before anyone else. Then it's about maintaining the voice, developing the character a little more in each story, and most importantly, trying to make each new book better than the last. It helps when you love your characters - it helps a lot! But as neither of these set out to be series when I wrote the first one, I backtrack a lot to keep it all together and make sure things are consistent. And most of all, I try very hard to stay away from bland.

Great Beginnings at an End

Thanks to Paperback Writer, who set all this up over on her blog, and provided the links so we could all do a dozen or more workshops last week (or, if you're like me, copy and paste the info for reading later - there was a heap of good stuff going on). Millions of thanks too, to the people who read this blog in the past week, and the people who bravely put their beginnings up for comment - and of course those who commented.

It's been a very interesting experience for me. I'm used to standing up in a classroom and going "Blah blah blah" and drawing diagrams on the board and getting instant responses to questions. Having to put my ideas and theories and information here on a daily basis should've been easy (especially since I've written material for a couple of online units) but it was a different kind of format. It got me thinking all over again about beginnings, and looking at a range of examples.

I did promise book prizes, so I put everyone's name in the hat and this is who fell out:
ljcohen
natalie hatch
Can you email me at the kidsbooks addy with your postal address please, so I can mail something to you? (Hope you have kids!)

Next week, things start to heat up around my place - the CBCA Awards are announced on 15 August, I'm off to Canberra for Children's Book Week, and then in September I am going to France (to research, write, take photos, create a book or two, and immerse myself in a different country). Apart from reading the print off my Lonely Planet and DK guides, I'm also having a revision week this week. It's hard to imagine, but I think I have spent eight hours, on and off, on the last three sentences of one story. Maybe next year I'll do a blog workshop on endings ... No, bad idea. Because every ending depends entirely on the beginning, the middle, the set up, the pay off, the theme ...

One Last 200 words

This came a little late, but I thought I'd post it anyway and see if you would like to add comments:

*The Fire Dying*

He fought with all he knew but he didn't know enough.
They claimed immortality and they claimed Longnight -
 that the sun would shine for but a few hours each day,
and then they would reign, unchecked.
Cyran believed them. He was the last man standing.
Cyran stood naked before the assembly, the red blood of a lashing and
the black ink of his marking both stark against the pale flesh of his back.
He was too weak to cover himself, too weak to keep his eyes open to the
mages who sat before him on high seats in the shadowed room. Fear gave way
long ago to emptiness.
"Will you join us or not?" Bodris, their leader,  sounded bored.
He had killed or ruined every mage who had joined him. "The power
of the dark can be yours. You can train just as you had -
on the magics of the night."
"No."
His men were brought in now, chained. They grunted to
conceal the pain of their bondage. Cyran heard a lash fall against
Ladvic and hid his cringe.
"If that is your answer?" Bodris did not let him respond. He
turned to the other mages. "Death for this one as well? And the
others?"
"Kill me and spare me your evil," Cyran mumbled, but they heard
him.

Opening No. 9

For the thousandth time, Isabel wished Jared had sent someone else to 
cover this story. Taking a deep breath, she composed a professional 
expression on her face and followed the mother up the stairs.

Isabel paused at the threshold of the girl's room. Sera Campbell's ashen 
face and blond hair stood out against the oppressively cheerful pink 
bedspread. Pink curtains filtered the afternoon sun, filling the room 
with pastel light.

"Sweetie? This is Ms. Jepsen, the reporter I told you about. Remember?"

The girl's eyes were open in a fixed stare.

Isabel perched on the edge of a wicker rocking chair next to the bed. 
Turning her tablet to record, she leaned close to the girl. "Sera, can 
you hear me?"

The child's slow breathing never changed its cadence. Isabel reached out 
with her full senses and felt nothing. She shivered. Even mindblinds had 
an echo, but Sera was like a life sized hollow doll. Isabel forced 
herself to swallow against a rising tide of nausea.

LJCohen

Opening No. 8

The blacked out windows of the Rockhampton National
Dance Hall might hide the light, but any passing invader
could find it by sound.  Cares and inhibitions were thrown
away for just a short time.  Some lights could be
seen twinkling as bodies jumped and swung past the
open entrance.  People were already milling around
outside trying to cool off.  A few couples
were trying very hard to find a more romantic place
in order to spend time together.

Heather knew some of those girls would be
getting themselves into hot water pretty soon, and
once Beatrice Price knew,
then so would whole district.  Rockhampton's
small town society ostracized those who didn't
conform to their rules.  It helped her
determination to not succumb to
any stupid behaviour.

Jeeps started arriving with loads of sexed-up
American GIs whooping and hollering up the street.
It was sure to upset the locals, who were
sitting down to listen to their favourite radio show.
One thing was for certain, the boys were here
for a good time, if not a long one.

They were a conglomeration of khaki suits with slicked
back hair, big smiles and big plans for the evening.  

Opening No. 7

In Living Color

From the moment the handler pulled the gate, Duke knew he was going
to die. The Brahma bull beneath him rocketed into the arena,
scattering dust and slinging spit and jarring Duke to the bone every
time it flung its one-ton body into the air and landed stiff-legged
in the dirt again. All he could do was hang on for dear life and
hope the folks in the emergency room wouldn't
do anything heroic.

All in all, he had to admit this time around hadn't been so bad.
Not at all like the last trip, which ended more ignominiously
than most. The previous jaunt would have been humorous
if it hadn't been so, well, bizarre. Who knew
pianos really could fall from twelfth-story windows and crush
innocent bystanders while the world watched in horrified
amazement? The experience still registered like something
out of a Saturday-morning cartoon. "There I
was, minding my own business, when all of a sudden I looked
up and a piano was headed straight for me." Who would
believe a story like that? Duke wasn't sure he believed it
himself, even though he had seen it with his own
eyes - up close and in living color.

Opening No. 6

I realise some of these are spreading across the page - it's hard to judge where the lines should end as I copy and paste. On to the next!

"Bump in the Night" by B.L.Borowetz

Sometimes life hands you lemon slices, and I guess the
smart thing to do would be make Gin Tonics . But when
your cosmic surprise turns out to be a slug clinging to your
clothing, the best thing to do is go back to bed and
stay there.

I so need to listen to my own advice.

I'd been up all night, out in the city fulfilling my destiny, saving
mankind. It's a great gig most days, but plays hell on the
wardrobe. First thing I noticed when I woke was the clothing
on the floor, where I'd stripped down as the sun had been
coming up. My favorite pair of leather pants were totally
shredded, and the suede designer jacket hadn't fared much
better.

Now I can handle monsters of the dark making a grab for
me with their numerous stinging tentacles, or poisonous
venom spewed my way is all in a day's work. If some bitch
from the demon realm wants to go all chick-fit in
a fight and starts pulling hair, I can deal. But the loss of
favorite pants and jacket on the same night, due to some
crack-head knife-wielding psycho that I'd inadvertently
bumped into while getting a soda at the corner 7-11
really pissed me off. 

Opening No. 5

My legs stretched as far as they could, carrying me across the forest path.
Rocks and roots pressed against my bare feet - my slippers had shredded
 and fallen off long ago - but I did not care. I just had to run. I even could
not quite remember what I was running from. All I remembered was sharp,
shiny weapons of destruction.
They had destroyed the life that I had peacefully led for the past few years.
They were likely to destroy any peace that I had in this life. The only way
that I would be able to have any peace would be in death. Even there,
I doubted that they would not continue to hound me. The High King's
Myrmidon were persistent, to say the least.
The fatigue was starting to soak into my muscles. It clouded my mind;
my defences fell away and my pain immunity faded. I slowed, jogging
along the path, and then completely stopped. I bent over double as dizziness
assaulted me. My stomach heaved, but there was nothing left to throw up.
I smacked my lips, wishing for water to clear the bitter taste from my mouth. I
wiped my hand along my mouth, wincing as all the scratches protested.

ManiacScribbler 

Opening No. 4

I shake my head in disbelief it's him. Ethan, right in front of me, walking towards the
water. I would know his walk and frame anywhere, even after thirty years. I fight the urge
to run up to him and say, "I can't believe you're here! I never stopped loving
you! Why aren't you dead? And why are you in New Hampshire?"

"Whoa, hold on. Don't you think you should look at his face?" The small voice
in my head speaks, overpowering the throbbing sounds that rise through my throat and into my
ears. I turn and see Jennifer; she's getting ready to leave.

I feel like shouting, "Jennifer the love of my life came back from the dead, and
he's here, on the beach. We can't leave." I fear she'll think I'm nuts.
We haven't known each other long and Jen is not used to my idiosyncrasies.

"Jennifer, you getting ready to go?" Nothing like asking the obvious.

"I'm a bit tired and I want to be awake driving home. Do you mind?"

"Not if I can take another dip." I really don't feel like swimming, but he is
in the water and I need to see his face.

jerzegurl 

Opening No. 3

 I think I broke a lot of your rules for dangerous beginnings here.  Prologue. Not the
main character (though he is A main character as villain).

The body lay on the bed in a pool of rose petals.  Pure crimson.  The color
of love.  Of desire.  Of death.  Rigor mortis had come and gone, leaving her
as easy to manipulate and pose as a doll.  He dressed his doll in the satin
nightgown he'd found among Mackensie's things.  The shoes she'd kicked off
upon her return from the wedding lay discarded near the doorway.  The dress
she'd changed out of and so carefully draped over the footboard was now
artfully pooled in the floor.  It had been a last minute addition to the
plan�a stroke of inspiration to dress the body in Mackensie's clothes, to
set the stage as if she were waiting for the lover she'd taken here so many
years ago.

His lips curved in perverse delight.  He'd been waiting so long for this
opportunity�for her to come back to the hometown she'd cut and run from
twelve years before.  And who would have thought she would deliberately stay
*here* in this cabin, where things had gone so dramatically wrong for her?
What a delightful bonus to begin the game here.  Oh, how he wished he could
see the look on her face when she returned to find his carefully constructed
tableau.

Kathleen Gresham

Opening No. 2

A knock at the door startled Vera's packing. She grabbed some gowns and
dumped them over her travel case.

She opened the door a crack. It was Grey. Even with his mouth twisted into a
tight line of disapproval, the dark strands of his hair falling across his
face made Vera's heart do double back-flips. Vera schooled herself. This was
not the time to indulge her crush.

"Yes?" she said, injecting a note of irritation into her voice.

"What are you up to?" he asked, arching an eyebrow at her. He pushed the
door all the way open and strode into her room.

"Excuse me!" Vera drew herself up to her full height and placed her hands on
her hips.

He ignored her, tugging her travel case from out under the pile of clothes.
"Really Vera. What would your parents say?"

"My parents," Vera repeated, choking a little bit on the words. She blinked
and swallowed. "They would..." She took a deep breath. "They'd want me to
leave; they didn't want me to end up serving that man."

"That man? I assume you mean the king?" He frowned at her. "And just where
are you planning on going?" 

Opening No. 1

Life is sorrow. Lynn Hana Alexander balanced on one leg, eyes closed, and pretended
to be a tree. Her grandmother always said a calm mind could conquer anything. She focused on
the white noise of Houston traffic seeping into her apartment and imagined her outstretched
arms as strong branches reaching toward light. All her sorrows and worries dropped one by
one like dead leaves, spun and fluttered as the wind of her will tossed them far, far away.

The shrill ring of the phone startled her into planting both feet on the meditation mat. Her
aching arms sagged to her sides. Who on earth would be calling her at seven a.m. on a
Sunday? She should have turned the phone off.

Lynn inhaled deeply, and exhaled listening to the second ring. Probably her mom calling to
discuss table centerpieces or some other wedding related matter. She groaned. The last
person she wanted to talk to and the last topic on earth she wanted to discuss.

A third ring. Mommy dearest could leave a message. She closed her eyes and focused on the
First Noble Truth: Life is sorrow.

Fourth ring. Hope leapt in her heart and her eyes flew open. Maybe Rob had come
to his senses.

RK 

Great Beginnings - Day Five

Here we are - it's time to look at your 200 words. I'm going to concentrate on posting them first - individually - and then I will come back and put my comments in.

What would be great is if you all comment too, and here are the key things I think you should look for:
* As the reader, do you understand what is going on? Who is in the story? Where and when it's taking place? In other words, are you "situated"?
* Do you think the tone is clear? Do you know what kind of book it's going to be?
* Are there plenty of hooks and story questions? Do you want to keep reading?
* If there is anything that didn't work for you, please tell us why (this is your job as a writer, as well as a reader - to understand why something didn't work for you).

Remember, too, that we all like different kinds of stories, so don't let your dislike of a certain genre stop you from considering these openings in terms of craft and key elements.
And I will try not to be too snarky!!

Great Beginnings - Day Four

Today I'm going to start with what I think is a great beginning. Actually, every novel I've read by Michael Robotham has a great beginning. Maybe it's because he was a journalist and he knows what you need to pull the reader in. It was hard to choose, but I've picked Lost (and a big thank you to Michael who gave me permission to use this):

The Thames, London
I remember someone once telling me that you know it's cold when you see a lawyer with his hands in his own pockets. It's colder than that now. My mouth is numb and every breath like slivers of ice in my lungs.
People are shouting and shining torches in my eyes. In the meantime, I'm hugging this big yellow-painted buoy like it's Marilyn Monroe. A very fat Marilyn Monroe, after she took all the pills and went to seed.
My favourite Monroe film is Some Like It Hot with Jack Lemmon and Tony Curtis. I don't know why I should think of that now, although how anyone could mistake Jack Lemmon for a woman is beyond me.
A guy with a really thick moustache and pizza breath is panting in my ear. He's wearing a life vest and trying to peel my fingers away from the buoy. I'm too cold to move. He wraps his arms around my chest and pulls me backwards through the water. More people, silhouetted against the lights, take hold of my arms, lifting me onto the deck.
'Jesus, look at his leg!' someone says.
'He's been shot!'

Why do I think this works? Look at all the story questions - we know he's in the water, clinging to a buoy, but we don't know why. We don't know who he is but we know he's in trouble (maybe dying from hypothermia because of the way his mind is wandering). We know it's freezing cold. We know that underneath what's happening to him, this guy observes things and notes them mentally (important in terms of a large plot element). And Robotham makes us wait through the meandering mental stuff to that moment of shock - he hasn't just fallen in, he's been shot.

Part of this is pacing, and part of this is that balance between not giving the reader everything up front (making us wait, making us want to find out) but not confusing us. He tells us at the top that this is the Thames in London - a simple device that saves a lot of time and trouble. The other Robotham book I'm reading at the moment, The Suspect, starts with the main character, a psychologist, up on a hospital roof with a teenage boy who is about to jump off. So both books start with life-and-death situations. That works for me!

Danger Zones in Beginnings
Yesterday I talked about the dangers of using a prologue as your beginning, so I won't go there again, but here are some others:
Starting with Setting
Setting on its own is boring. Once upon a time, novels used to start with two pages of setting before a human entered. Nowadays, readers often skip long setting descriptions - you may not like it but it's true. Setting is not action. It's not movement forward. And it very rarely is conflict. You could say that a snowstorm implies conflict - not until there's a human in that storm, in danger. And I'd still rather start with the character and his/her fear of that storm, and desperate desire to survive. Readers don't connect with setting on an emotional level. It's not really a hook or a question.

So you can certainly start with some setting - of course you need it somewhere in there, because it's part of situating the reader (that was yesterday's post) - but the key element here is that your setting needs to be vital to what is happening. The action or conflict. The excerpt above has the icy Thames as its setting - have another look and see how many words are used that actually only describe the place. Apart from the heading, none. Every single word to do with setting is strongly connected to the main character and what is happening to him.

Starting with Dialogue
It's great to start with dialogue - I've done it myself. What doesn't work is dialogue that has no speaker identification, and hangs out there in limbo as a stream of sentences. The reader very quickly gets annoyed because they don't know who's talking, where they are, and often it's not apparent what the dialogue is even about. It looks snappy and fast-paced, but 99% of the time it doesn't work.

Starting with Backstory
Apart from the boredom factor, starting with a whole heap of backstory is Telling. What you're really doing is trying to explain to the reader why your character is like they are. Show us in the story, don't tell us all this stuff at the beginning (don't tell us any time in the story). We read to discover, we read to be surprised, we read to understand. If you give us all this backstory, you aren't letting readers do their job (yes, you have to give the reader room to be in the story too).

Starting with a Dream
Oops, I'm guilty of this! But I made darned sure that the dream was: a) very short and dramatic, b) very dreamlike, c) very clear to the reader what it was. A dream doesn't work when: you don't tell the reader until pages later and they feel tricked; it goes on and on without much purpose; you make it too much like a real dream which is fragmented and weird and nonsensical; you make it too orderly so that it's obvious you're trying to use it as some kind of device to give the reader information; it's boring; it doesn't move the story forward in any way.

Starting with Your Character Waking Up
Everybody wakes up. Yawn. Waking up starts the day - it doesn't start any significant action. Unless your character wakes up and their house is on fire. In that case, we can skip the stretching and the looking for the slippers and the banging on the alarm clock and the cat jumping on the bed and the smell of the spouse brewing coffee and the shower and the ... You get the picture. Waking up doesn't provide movement forward, precipitating action and immediate conflict and reaction from your character. An earthquake or a fire or a bomb might. (To this Danger you can add any other everyday habit a person does which is ultimately boring.)

Starting with a Character Who is Not Your Main Character
This is a viewpoint thing, and part of situating your reader. If you make it absolutely clear that the first character the reader meets is not the main character, you could get away with it. But the reader expects that the first voice they hear, the first person they "see" will be the Number One person in this novel. We can't help it - it's a reading habit, I guess. We're looking to invest in the main character, we're wanting to care about them, follow them through the story. You start with someone different, it's confusing. The last thing you want is to confuse your reader, so I'd advise against this. (This might be a reason someone wants to use a prologue - so they can start with a different character. Same question as yesterday - if you were told to get rid of it, could you?)

OK, that's my list of the most dangerous ways to try and start a story. I'm sure you could find examples where writers have done any of the above and done it well. That's the key, though, isn't it - doing it well.
Now for your 200 words. You can email it to kidsbooks at optusnet dot com dot au. Put it in the body of the email (you can put your name at the bottom or not), and I will post each one separately which will allow readers to then contribute comments. My final suggestion is that before you send it, read it out loud to yourself. Listen for clunky sentences, and see if it flows. It's a good test!

Great Beginnings - Day Three

Prologues
In response to posts over the last two days, we're going to start with some stuff about prologues. Why is the anti-prologue sentiment growing? I tend to think it's for the same reason that we are told not to write rhyming picture books. Because so many people do it badly. In my "travels" (meaning conferences, forums, blogs, newsletters etc), I've heard that editors at fantasy publishing houses are not keen on prologues simply because so many are one of the following: a prophecy, a curse, or an info dump. The first two are outdated tropes, and the third is bad writing. It can apply to any kind of prologue.

Out of interest, I just went to one of my bookshelves and picked out eight books - four of them had prologues. That surprised me, I have to admit. So I took a closer look. Please note that my comments that follow here are my own personal preferences/opinions. You may well disagree.
Book 1 is A Thin Dark Line by Tami Hoag. The prologue is like a poem, presumably "written" by the killer. Another one doesn't appear until page 153. My vote: not necessary, doesn't add anything.

Book 2 is Mercy by Jodi Picoult. In the prologue, a woman holds a yard sale where she apparently sells stuff as a way of telling her husband their marriage is over. It creates intrigue - why, who are these people? Does it add anything vital to the story? Well, it introduces story questions, but when I launch into the actual story itself, I instantly forget everything in the prologue. My vote: probably could do away with it, or move it.

Book 3 is Indigo Slam by Robert Crais. (You can tell I read a lot of crime!) He hasn't called it a prologue (good thinking) - it's called SEATTLE. And the next bit is called Three Years Later: Los Angeles. So we're being given backstory, involving characters who are not the main players. My vote: this works because it is chock-full of action, fear, more action, and the feeling that I will get to find out what happens to these people, and it will matter.

Book 4 is Every Dead Thing by John Connolly. The prologue is 12 pages, and is a mix of alternating bits - the main character narrating the precipitating incident that changes his life, the villain buying flowers, and a whole heap of excerpts from police reports. I guess it's a prologue because it's about something that happens before the actual story starts, and it's about the main character. My vote: it doesn't really hold my interest. Lots of it feels like I'm being fed information. Could he have done this another way?

Obviously lots of writers use prologues. There is nothing to stop you having one. But let me ask you this - if your book was about to be accepted for publication, the offer on the table was $50,000 advance, and the editor said, "The advance is yours and the first print run will be 50,000 copies - if you lose your prologue" - could you do it? If you honestly think you could, maybe you should seriously consider it.

Situating The Reader
Opening paragraphs are tricky. We want to include story hooks or questions, we want to capture the reader's interest and make them excited about what's coming next, we want to create intrigue, we want those zinger first and second sentences, we want to grab the reader by the throat. Yep, yep, all of that. But what we don't want is for the reader to think What the heck is going on? Who are these people? Where are we? Who's talking? What is that stupid monkey doing in the car? Is this 1946 or 2008?

It's probably the key reason why beginnings are so tricky, because as well as all that hook stuff, you have to let the reader know these things: who the main character/narrator is, what POV the story is in, where and when the story is taking place, what kind of voice the story has, what the tone is, what genre it is, what level of language to expect, why the story is starting here. You have to pack all of that into the first couple of paragraphs, as well as hooking the reader into the story! No wonder we rewrite our beginnings a hundred times.

But it's also why we come back and rewrite the beginning after the novel is finished. It's like writing backwards. It's a lot easier to get voice and tone working after you've been doing it for 90,000 words. You're in the groove, you hear the narrator's voice, the tone of the novel is settled and consistent. None of that is likely to be happening when you first write page 1. And even if you are a writer who rewrites as you go (I have to write the whole first draft before I can revise), you will still need to look again at Page 1 and Chapter 1 when the thing is finished. In other words, don't panic. That's what revision is for.

Remember, too, that you created the novel, so you know the characters and setting, you know what is coming next. The reader doesn't. What often happens is the writer either leaves too much out (not realising there isn't enough there to "signpost" the reader), or overdoes it, ending up with a beginning that is way too slow and explanatory. I think two key things your opening pages (I'd say opening chapter, actually) should not have are backstory and flashbacks.

What they should have is the precipitating incident, action, conflict, and movement forward. Within these will be hooks and story questions. These are the things that make the reader want to find out what will happen next. The exercise for today is to look at your opening 200 words (no more) and identify the hooks and story questions in there. I think you should have at least three. Post one sentence only from your 200 words that you think has a hook or question in it.

Tomorrow, I'm going to post on the things that are dangerous to open with, and why. And some ways you could break the rules on them. I'm also going to post the email address tomorrow for your 200 words. I was going to put it up today, but I think you'd rather read the Dangerous List first. And then if you use something on the list anyway, we can decide if you've succeeded or not!

Great Beginnings - Day Two

Today I went for my usual walk, and it occurred to me that my 20 minutes+ is a little like a novel. I start out a bit slowly, with joints and muscles creaking and cold, and if it wasn't for the music blasting through my headphones, I might well give up and stay home (it's pretty cold here right now). But what keeps me going is not just the promise of better health and the virtuous feeling of "having walked" (kind of like that virtuous feeling of "having written"!), but the sense of setting out yet again, about to see what's new today in the neighbourhood, and the music in my ears. I choose to put things on my mp3 player that will stimulate me and keep me walking, even when my toes and face are numb.

Does the beginning of your novel provide that sense of adventure? Of rousing voice and music? Of keen interest in the possibilities in front of you?

I talked yesterday about how well-published writers already have their "contract with the reader". They've set it up through publishing several novels that show what they have to offer. But if you're a new writer, you don't have that behind you. So your job is to create a beginning that will hook any reader right into your story. Today we are focusing on two things: starting in the right place, and the first sentence. I'm going to begin this by giving a link to J.A. Konrath's blog post on bad beginnings. It's worth reading.

Starting in the Right Place
We all need to start somewhere. My friend T, who is a fantasy writer, has rewritten her novel about a million times (only kidding) but one of the key things she has wrestled with is where to begin. I think she has changed her opening chapter about eight times. This doesn't mean rewriting it - this means starting with an entirely new chapter. Do you start with the viewpoint character? Not always. I'm seeing a lot of prologues (I took 20 books off my shelf last night and checked) where the writer has started with another character, hence labelling it Prologue.

Is this a good thing? Not very often. It gives your reader the sense that you didn't know where else to put this stuff, so you stuck it at the beginning and called it a Prologue. Sometimes it's OK, sometimes the reader skips it or wonders what you think you're doing! If you need to show a different character's POV, ask yourself why. Have you done it throughout the book? I see crime novels where the writer seems to think I need to have the "villain's" side of things. Mostly, I don't, so it annoys me. Can't you take that prologue stuff and thread it into the story? And if you did, wouldn't it create more story questions and raise the tension?

Very often, in a student's story, I'll suggest they start on Page 2, or 3, or sometimes 8! But sometimes I will also suggest they start earlier. It may well be that a flashback they have inserted on Page 3 actually needs to be dramatised and become the beginning. I can hear you thinking: So how on earth will I work out where to start? I'll go back to Hooked for what I consider is very good advice - start with the inciting incident.

The inciting incident is what propels the story into motion. It implies, and must have, action, conflict, drama and movement forward. It's not description or exposition or backstory or characterisation - it is purely and simply a key point of action that makes your main character act or react. If you are starting with something that doesn't demand action or reaction, you're probably not starting in the right place.

The First Sentence
Is your first sentence a zinger? Will it make me read the first paragraph?

Is your first paragraph gripping and intriguing and fascinating? Will it make me want to read the first chapter?

Tomorrow's post will be about the ingredients. But today I want to focus on what keeps us reading. How do you write a first sentence that zings? With a lot of persistence and hard work! Very often I feel that I can't start a new story or novel without a great first sentence that will get me excited and determined to follow it up with even better sentences. Almost as often, I will come back later, in the revision process, and delete that first sentence or paragraph and persevere until I write the zinger. The one that will keep any reader glued to the page.

Here are two of my favourite first sentences:
"Captain Ahab was neither my first husband nor my last." (Ahab's Wife by Sena Jeta Naslund) - there is so much in this: recognition of Moby Dick, a strong voice, a woman who is willing to declare herself up front, intrigue (so what will she tell me?).

"The first thing you find out when yer dog learns to talk is that dogs don't got nothing much to say. About anything." (The Knife of Never Letting Go by Patrick Ness) - a friend read the first paragraph of this book and said "That voice and bad grammar would put me right off". I love it - it tells me immediately that something different is happening, and I want to know what, and who this person is. (Yes, it's two sentences, but the second one is short.)

And some crime examples:
"I don't mean to bitch, but in the future I intend to hesitate before I do a favour for a friend of a friend." (L is for Lawless by Sue Grafton)
"The old lady had changed her mind about dying but by then it was too late." (City of Bones by Michael Connolly)
"The day I got the murder book, I was still thinking about Paris." (The Murder Book by Jonathan Kellerman)

I want to make a point here - many of my favourite opening sentences come from middle grade and YA novels. These writers know they've got a tough audience. They know how important it is to scoop the reader in. My crime examples above come from writers who aren't sleeping on the job - these are not their first novels by a long way, but they still understand how important it is to grab the reader by the throat and hold on. And build on it.

Today's exercise is a double-barrel (if you choose, otherwise choose just one). In the Comments, post your favourite opening line from a novel or story - don't forget to tell us where it comes from, and you could also say why you like it, why it works for you. Two sentences allowed only if one of them is less than three words.
And you can also post your own opening sentence of your novel or story - but make sure it's a goodie!

Great Beginnings - Day 1

Where else would you start a series of posts about Beginnings except Day 1?
Seriously though, I'd like to offer a range of ideas, advice and thought-provokers this week, along with the opportunity for you to send me your first 200 words for feedback later on. Possibly a la Snark. As in some straightforward give-and-take from me and other readers about what works and what doesn't in your opening. I'm also going to offer some prizes! The kind you win simply by chipping in with your comments and your 200 words (or feedback). They'll be books - what else? And I'll announce them next week. Here we go.

Why a Great Beginning is Important
Hands up if you've heard or read something like the following: "A totally engaging beginning is the key to interesting any agent or editor in reading your manuscript. You need to start your story with action, character and voice; you need to hook your reader on the first page, and keep them hooked." I think we've all heard this so many times that we yawn now, and we say things like "Yeah, but my story/novel is atmospheric and I have to set that up first" or "I need that bit of backstory and it fits on page one and it saves me doing a flashback later" or "this prologue is vital for the reader to understand the rest of the novel".

Can you hear the buzzer? It's buzzing you out of the game. It really doesn't matter how great your novel might be, if you can't write an engaging, active first page, no one is going to keep reading. Not the agent, the editor, or the person in the bookshop with $15 to spend and 5000 books to choose from. That may sound harsh. But anyone who has ever been an editor or slush pile reader of any kind, whether for a publisher, a magazine, an agent or a story competition, will tell you the same thing. If it hasn't grabbed them within the first page or two, it'll get put into the NO pile.

Yep, you've heard that before too, so I'm not going to labour the point any longer. I want to move onto the constructive stuff, not the doom and gloom parade. One of my favourite books is about beginnings - it's Hooked by Les Edgerton. And on page 7 Les says: "A good, quality story beginning is a microcosm of the work entire. If you capture the right beginning, you've written a small version of the whole."

Now this fascinates me. Les is saying that if you work really hard on your first chapter (or paragraph for a short story), and you learn everything you can from it in terms of establishing character, voice, setting, and then go onto scene construction, pacing, plotting and dialogue, you can apply what you have learned and succeeded in, and create a whole novel like that. Sounds simple. I agree with him about 80%, because Chapter 1 probably won't help you much with plotting and sustaining 90,000 words, but it'll be a darned good start.

The Contract With The Reader
There are two sides to this. On the reader's side (starting with the end first), what he or she does in a bookshop is attempt to decipher the book in front of them. Publishers do a lot of work to make this easier. They create a cover that says crime or romance or literary; they tell the bookshop where to shelve it; they write a blurb that gives you an idea of what the book will be about; they market the book as a specific genre. But the other thing they "help" with is the first page. Because after all that other work they do, the last thing they need is an author who begins their romance novel with an opening page that reads like a murder mystery.

That brings us back to you - the writer. It's a good question. Why would you start a romance novel with a murder or a crime? Why would you start a thriller with a long description of a city, no matter how interesting that city is? Why would you start your novel with two pages of dialogue, with no hint of who is speaking or where we are? Why would you start your novel with three pages of description of the major characters? (Please don't say because you are a great writer and you can get away with it!)

Take a look at what is currently on your bookshelves. Pick out ten novels at random and read their opening paragraphs. I have no doubt that the first thing you will think is: this beginning is too slow, too descriptive, doesn't start with the viewpoint character, has a prologue, etc etc. But very often the writers "breaking" those rules about beginnings are established. They already have a "contract with the reader" that will not be broken.

One example I'm reading right now is the latest Janet Evanovich novel about Stephanie Plum. There were a lot of paragraphs in Chapter 1 and 2 that I skipped, because JE was summarising stuff I already know from previous books. I gave her a bit of leeway, because in there was some humour and some action, and a promise of more of the same from previous books (but I am getting a bit over it all - I'd like Stephanie to break out now, maybe find a new job and/or a new disastrous love, but no doubt 1 million other readers would say no). I put up with it. But I'm getting less and less inclined to spend $$ on JE. She's wasting her opening chapter on things I bet 95% of her readers already know, so JE? Get on with the story!

It is easy to criticise publishers for "pigeon-holing" books into this genre or that, but let's face it, we all want to know what we are getting. What we are paying money for. I expect the first pages of a book I read, while standing in front of the shelves groaning with books, to promise me something, and to live up to that promise. A big part of that is to do with where I find it in the shop.

However, if I pick up something new, by a new writer, I'm keen to see what the contract is offering. Is it going to be an engaging character voice? A zinger of a plot? Lots of laughter? A new twist on an old story?
Ask yourself this: what does your opening page offer the reader in your contract? Are you promising them a certain kind of genre? A character they will love by page 2? An action-filled story that they will still be reading at 3am? A fantasy world that they will fall into and never want to leave? A story that reflects something happening (or that they wish would happen) in their own lives? A use of language that will stir their imaginations and their souls, and leave them gasping for breath?

OK, here is today's exercise. Please post in the Comments section. What is the contract you are offering your reader? Is it genre-based? Is it going to be about character and voice? When a reader (any reader, be it agent, editor or someone with money in their hand) picks up your novel and reads Page 1, what is in the contract you are offering them? Start your contribution with "This is what I promise you will get..."

Remember These?

Slate online has a very interesting piece about early readers for kids, questioning the use of PG13 film characters in a new series. (Iron Man and the Incredible Hulk). The link is here. Most of the piece is in the form of a slide show! And it shows pages from classic readers, as well as the new ones. It took me right back - not just to the Cat in the Hat but to A Fly Went By, Ten Apples up on Top and Frog and Toad. Great classics that helped us all learn to read. Worth a look just for reminiscing!

The Book and the ...

It seems that the popular topic continues to be "the future of the book". Industry articles talk about publishers resisting the move into multimedia, while some publishers out there are already producing the book that goes with the website, game, cards, toys, music, etc. In the middle, the author continues to wonder where they'll be in ten years time.

One article I've just read on The Futurist website is called The 21st Century Writer. It talks about all the usual stuff, but instead of predicting writers will become extinct, it makes a few interesting suggestions. One is about what readers want now:

the key to book publishing in the future is recognizing that readers are after more than information. They’re seeking an intellectual connection with an author and a community experience organized around an idea. Publishers have to look at what is still scarce, says Rushkoff. “While the book isn’t scarce, I’m scarce. I can only be in so many places. So there are a lot of different experiences that attend the book that [readers] should be participating in, to think about the book as a way to promote a set of ideas. How to work with those ideas is limited.” Those attendant experiences can include lectures, classes, even parties. The more personal the experience, the more people are willing to pay for it.

This got me thinking about writers' festivals - most of which are really readers' festivals - and the reasons why people go to them. I think what Rushkoff says is right. Readers want to see their favourite authors, hear what they have to say, and listen to new ideas. Many times I have heard disappointed audience members talk about writers who gave boring, academic papers instead of relating directly to the audience and being more open and engaging. Reading a paper puts you behind a podium, at a distance. Some readers are interested in the story behind the story, some just want to see the author talk about their books and writing. But again, an author who talks only about their latest book, like a walking advertisement, is disliked intensely.

Authors also make the mistake of assuming the audience have all read their books. I will often go to a session with an author who I may never heard of, but who sounds interesting. If all they do is spruik their latest offering, it's really boring. I don't know what they are referring to! But if they talk about the ideas in the book, or the research, or about their work as a writer generally, the interest and engagement level rises. They are sharing something I can't get from the book.

I attended a session at the crime writing festival last weekend, one with Michael Robotham and Peter Temple. Because this really was a festival that seemed to focus more on writing, both of them talked at length about their processes. That included things like how being a journalist led to or influenced their fiction writing, and how they learned to write dialogue, among other fascinating topics. I was happy to get a book signed by MR afterwards (and permission to use one of his openings in my workshops next week) and came home even more intrigued to see how the rest of the book I was reading of his turned out.

As the Futurist article also says, an author can only be in one place at a time. That kind of festival experience is limited to how many days there are in a year! But it may be that video podcasts, interactive websites and short films will help to broaden the experience of "invoking the author" and exploring ideas. I'm signed up for a couple of Virtual School Visits in early September, and I am looking forward to seeing how it all works.

Where Shall I Buy Books?

The issue of parallel imports has come up again here. For those who don't know about this, currently there is a rule (law?) where a local publisher has 30 days in which to publish a book from overseas, as a local production, or booksellers are then allowed to import it. Say David Sedaris's new book comes out in the US on 1 June, then if a publisher here has bought Australian rights, they have to get it out here by 1 July. The idea is that it stops mass imports of overseas books, and supports our local publishing industry. I have to say I find the whole thing a bit confusing, and I have come to think that really it only applies to best-sellers. For a book with a limited audience of maybe 500 Australian buyers, nobody here is going to publish it. They'll just import a small amount after the 30 days.

I guess booksellers don't like the 30 days rule because anyone who wants a hot new (limited interest) title will buy it from Amazon or B&N. They won't wait. But as an occasional buyer of these books, I'm not going to bother with a local bookshop anyway, not even Dymocks or Borders. Why not? Because you go in to said bookshop, they find it for you on the computer, you put in a special order and you wait. And wait. And wait. Sometimes 3-4 months. And when the book finally arrives, you pay double for it. Why on earth wouldn't I buy online?

With Amazon or B&N, I go online, I find exactly what I want, I pay with my credit card and usually within 3 weeks or so (sometimes longer if it's hard to get, but not if it's new and available) the books turn up on my doorstep. I do pay quite a lot for postage - I think this is where Amazon makes a nice profit! - but often I am paying US$12 for a hardcover and less for a paperback. The current excellent exchange rate makes it an even better deal.

Of course I am going to buy in a local bookshop when it's available. My bookshop receipts show that they're ahead in my purchase dollars by about 5 to 1. But for things like writing books, it's a no-brainer. My local Borders and Readings both have lots of writing books for sale, often even newish ones I want. But the average price for a paperback is around $40 or more. I assume that's freight plus profit zooming the price up. So I will go and buy the same book online for $12 plus postage, which ends up being around $20-24.

Here's two concrete examples. I am very keen to read a new YA novel called Thirteen Reasons Why by Jay Asher. It's not in any of my local bookshops so far, and may not be for another couple of months. When it is, it's likely to be in hardcover (imported) and be around $30+. On Amazon, I can buy the hardcover right now for US$11.55 plus postage (around $9 if I just buy this one book). I can also buy secondhand copies for $9.57 from Amazon, but I won't because I want to support the author. Yes, I'm going with Amazon. On the other hand, Ellen Hopkins' verse novels are always available in Borders here, and at a very reasonable price, so I will buy locally.

My other example is about secondhand. I teach several writing subjects that involve looking at aspects of the hero's journey. This year, we wanted to cover the heroine's journey and I found some information on the net for the class, but I decided I wanted a copy of the book by Maureen Murdock. No bookshops here had a copy or could get one in for me. It was originally published in 1990. But on Amazon, I was able to buy a secondhand copy for twenty-two cents!! Plus US$12 postage. It's been three weeks and it hasn't arrived yet, but I'm not in a hurry. I'm just glad to get a copy.

Workshop Coming...

Over on Paperback Writer's blog, she is in the process of setting up a week of workshops on people's blogs (they are volunteering to run something on a topic and she'll be the central "linker", I think). It will start 28 July.
It sounded like fun, so I've put my hand up to run a workshop here on my blog - my topic is the first 200 words. Of your work in progress. Novel, short story, middle grade or YA - any genre.

I think the idea is that I put up a series of posts with information, pointers, advice and examples, and you respond with your own ideas and thoughts. And I'm thinking also that people could put up their own 200 words (max) and get some feedback. I don't moderate comments here, so I'm expecting and hoping that everyone will play fair, and remember what they learned in Workshop 101 - that's all the stuff about how it's not YOUR story, and you should be constructive, not destructive. Or rude.

As well as my own how-to stuff, I'll be pointing you to other resources, including this one from J.A. Konrath's blog.
Anybody interested?

Perseverance Means Dennis

This is a photo of a happy author, celebrating the launch of his book along with a big bunch of mates and supporters. Dennis McIntosh. The book? Beaten By a Blow: the story of a shearer. It's a great moment for any author, to have your first book out there, on the shelves, receiving lots of attention and good reviews. And this is one guy who totally deserves all the good things that come with being published at last. Not that Dennis's path to publication is all about the book, or even all about the writing. It's about guts and determination and - that key factor - perseverance.

Beaten By a Blow is a title that rings of the shearing sheds, but couldn't be further from describing Dennis. I first met him back in 1996. He was in my poetry class, and it was obvious from the first night that he had a voice and a story to tell. At that time, he was struggling with grammar and punctuation, and poetry gave him a playing field of language that allowed him to express what he wanted to without being obsessed by the comma (that came later!). He produced two collections of his own poems, and had a poem read out in parliament.

Dennis tells me that, at the time, I said to him, 'You should go to university.' Well, he did. He started with my poetry class, and went on to do a Bachelor of Arts at Victoria University, an Honours year, and then a Masters at the University of Melbourne. He jokes about the fact that his thesis, written in academic language (after another long struggle), was about how he couldn't use academic language the way they wanted him to! He was determined to master grammar and punctuation, understanding that without those skills, he was always going to lag behind in writing for publication of any kind. So he studied editing with us at Vic Uni TAFE, TWICE!

Along the way, Dennis has fought a huge bunch of non-believers, people who decided they knew what was publishable writing and what wasn't, and told him several times to give up. Said he'd never make it. That's what I mean by perseverance. Not just writing and writing and then rewriting, but studying grammar, studying literature in order to understand what it was he was trying to do, and then not listening to the non-believers. I don't believe anyone has the right to tell a person they should give up on their dream.

Now Dennis's first book is out there. It was originally conceived as a novel, but his editor at Penguin convinced him to rewrite it as a memoir, which was a good move. Dennis said at his launch that the support from the editors at Penguin was fantastic, and he rose to their expectations, wanting to make it the best book it could possibly be. I wish you every success, Dennis. You are an inspiration.

And here's the blurb:

Dennis McIntosh was always determined not to get stuck in a factory like his father, but it's only once he takes a job as a roustabout that he discovers what he really wants to be: a shearer. Travelling from station to station, he revels in the smell and feel of the sheds, and the freedom of being answerable to no man except his mates.

And it's a thrilling tme to be in this legendary occupation. There's a fight on: the union is defending its workers against scab labourers' use of the wide comb. But while shearing's a fine life for a nineteen-year-old, it's a hard one for a man. As the added weight og adulthood settles on Dennis's shoulders, the sheds take their unforgiving toll.

Beaten by a Blow shows us the reality behind the romance of the shearer. Most of all, it tells the story of a boy dull of hope crashing headlong into life - into work, into drink, into responsibilities he isn't ready for, which come closer to breaking his back than shearing ever did.

Newsletter news

My writer friend and colleague, Susanna, has been in Kuala Lumpur recently, scouting out opportunities for our overseas writing/teaching business - textConnection. We travel to Hong Kong each year to teach writing classes and run professional development seminars. The photo above is me before I begin a session with the Hong Kong Women in Publishing members. The venue - the Helena May - is pretty amazing. I'm about to start work, not sit down for dinner!

We also produce a newsletter of fiction and nonfiction writing tips. The May issue includes a piece on how to tackle planning and clear writing, and another on finding time to write.
If you would like to be on our mailing list, email me at courses at textconnection dot net.

Resting or Feeling Guilty?

Last Thursday I finished Draft 3 of my crime novel (my secret vice when I'm not writing children's books!) - it was a complete rewrite, putting aside Draft 2 and starting again from scratch. After feedback, the intention was to deepen the characterisation, add more detail and create more depth in the story. So that wasn't going to be fixed by fiddling around the edges. I'd been working on it sporadically for about 3 months, then my friend G and I set each other a deadline to finish our respective novels. That gave me 4 weeks to write about 30,000 words.

Well, I did it. And so did she. We met up on the designated day and handed over our manuscripts to each other for critiquing, and spent a long time discussing what we thought might be the main issues, and what we specifically wanted the other person to look out for and comment on. Along with all the normal kinds of comments. My novel ended up at around 93,000 words, 13,000 more than the previous draft, so either I've been successful at the deepening process, or I've done a lot of pathetic padding!

So then I thought: back to the other story I was working on. I was halfway through and put it aside to do some research and thinking, then got into the crime rewrite, so going back to this one wasn't that hard. I had it plotted out, it was just the writing to be done. But have I been able to start? No. I have done a hundred other things, and procrastinated. I finally made myself sit down two days ago and read what I'd already written, thinking maybe I was afraid the earlier stuff was awful.

No, it was fine, and I'd written more than I thought I had. But I still haven't written any more. It's not writer's block, I think it's "resting time" perhaps. My head was inside that crime novel in a very intense way, and now the creative part of my brain is saying: Give me a break, kid. Then this morning, I was checking out a blog I hadn't read for a while, Through the Tollbooth, and there are several terrific posts on creativity and giving the muse (or whatever you want to call it) room to move. Letting it feel creative again rather than pushing, pushing, pushing to get more words out.

So rather than feel guilty for not writing this week, maybe I just need to chill out a bit, relax, go back to the writing books I was reading, watch another movie, dig more garden up, go for another walk, read some poetry, and let the muse put its feet up a for a little while longer.

The Potential Role of Fiction

Two items of interest this week - one an article, one an anecdote - have kept me thinking about the role of the imagination. The first was an article in Atlantic Monthly called Is Google Making Us Stupid? in which the author talks about how he has stopped being able to read in depth. Meaning things like long articles or books, pages and pages of ideas and theories and information, that all used to lead him to deeper thought and analysis. He talks about how having the internet at our fingertips, with dozens of instant results for any information search, leads to us constantly skimming and skipping. Thus he, and many people he has talked to, is losing the capacity for sustained thought and analysis. Or sustained anything where a big bunch of reading is required.

I was talking to my friend G about this, and we agreed. A few years ago, we read a lot of literary fiction. Now it seems like an effort, one I prepare for by eyeing the novel for a few days or weeks before working myself up to it. (A bit like mountain climbing.) I love literary fiction, but less and less am I reading it. Then she told me the anecdote that I will summarise: experts are saying that the toys and games children have now are too finite - everything has a purpose or an "ending" that is limiting kids' imagination. No longer does a cardboard box that could be a dozen different things, from space rocket to boat to house, satisfy parents (or kids sucked in by advertising). Nobody lets their kids play outdoors much anymore, so all those pretend games that go on and on and on, until you get sick of them and invent new ones, don't happen in the same way.

Instead you have a "make over" doll that you put make up on and that's it. Or play a video game with pre-set moves and endings (even multi-choice endings are still endings not created by you, and video worlds are never your imaginary worlds). I've seen little kids with those "action stations" - plastic boards with bells and rattles and moving bits on them that are supposed to mean hours of enjoyment - where the kid gives it a go for about 20 seconds and gets bored. What else can you do with it? Nothing much.

When I did my degree, I studied a unit on artificial intelligence, which was about how close computers were getting to thinking like humans, and what the differences were. That was a while ago, and I'm sure the differences now are minimal. In many things, computers have overtaken us. One day computers will fall in love, perhaps! But the article about Google made me think about the other side of it - are we being encouraged to become more like computers? After all, computerised humans would theoretically be more efficient, less emotional, and more able to quickly process information and get the job done for the boss.

I'm starting to think that what might save us is books, and specifically fiction. With the advances in digital animation, movies no longer have to rely on suggestion or story. They can blitz us with virtual reality on the screen. No imagination needed. But people complain loudly about movies that are all special effects and no story or characters. Where can we go to re-discover our imagination? Stories and books. For those of us who love fiction, the idea that there are kids who hate to read is astounding. When you have had that experience of diving into a book, entering a world in your imagination that sweeps you away, you just can't imagine how anyone would not want to do that!

There are, of course, lots of readers who don't like fiction. But I agree with Nicholas Carr, who wrote the Google article. Having millions of items of information at our fingertips doesn't improve our minds, it just improves our efficiency. If our brains are not going to become just processors of quick, short bursts of stuff, we need the worlds of fiction. And most importantly, so do our kids. So don't go out and buy more stupid plastic toys or video games - buy your kids some books. Read those books with your kids and stir up your own imagination. (And read the article about Google - it's not too long, and it might get you thinking!)