Seeking The Voice

Crafting a story is dependent on many variables. One of the most important is the narrator's "voice". Theorists sometimes refer to "viewpoint", but that's not what I mean here. The same narrator can have different viewpoints. Here's an exercise that I suggest you try to train the muscle in your brain that tells stories and to understand the power of "voice":think of someone you know with a strong personality, with a particular way of speaking, with a peculiar view of the world and then take any story you have written, any story, short or long,...

Editing: Part 2

Let me begin again in Jean Paul-Sartre style, by stating the obvious: to edit you must...have something to edit. The first draft is like a newborn babe. Once born, you raise it, nurture it. There is a certain way of looking at text that provides a powerful impetus - it is knowing that some day someone is going to read it. When that day dawns the writing you reveal must be the best you can produce and that takes time, effort, will and focus. So how do you begin the process of editing? By reading. Now, what you must not do is to print out all...

The Ear vs The Eye

There is something the ear can discern that the eye cannot. It is rarely mentioned, but it is there like a speck of dust in the corner of your eye...yes, there it is...it is an edge, in fact it is THE edge the ear has over the eye. It is rhythm. One of the best techniques to aid anyone to write is to read your work aloud. Even better to let someone else read it for you. When the sound of the text that you have written expands and explodes and rumbles in your eardrums and you hear the voices of the characters you created, at that big bang moment...

Writing the Novel: The End in Mind

If your dream is to be a novelist then begin with the end in mind. And what is the end? It is this: the book in your hand, the book on the shelf. That is the end you are working towards. What else? Once you have that, no matter what happens to impede you, to slow you down, if you can firmly hold on to that image of the book in your hand then you have leaped from the realm of possibility to the realm of reality. The human mind does not make the distinction between that which is imagined and that which is physically real. If you can, make...

Editing: Part 1

I have no doubt, that most writing is in fact, editing and re-writing. Some believe that a short-story, novel, play, poem just pour out onto the page, fully clothed, ready to leap into our imagination. This isn't true. Never was. Until AI systems take over the world and replace us, I think we can safely assume it will remain this way.So why is it so important to state the obvious? It is about the mindset required to craft a good piece of writing. No writer will produce a piece of work ready for publication on the very first go. So why berate...

Where do Characters Come From? OR How to Invite a Character to Tea.

I often get asked "Where do you get your characters from?" "Was he based on a real person?" "Does she really exist?" "Is this character based on you?" I guess what I am really being asked is not where I retrieved and/or created the characters in my stories, but where the questioner can find their own characters... Now we can analyse what makes a character seem so alive, so special, larger than life, real, but would that analysis lead to a believable...

Do You Have a Story to Tell?

Everything around us is a living narrative, a tapestry of tales. This is how we express the meaning of our lives and give them shape, meaning, a pattern, coherence, voice. There's this saying - you've probably heard it: "everyone's got a novel in them". But do we all have a novel inside us? A story to spin? Oh yes, I think we do. Whether or not that novel is worth reading - or writing - is a different question. Is there really a story inside you? You doubt it? Then let me ask you another question...do you dream? Of course you do. However,...

Writer's Block

Today, someone asked me what I do when I get writer's block. It was an innocent enough question, but it was mooted on the assumption that I get writer's block. I don't, or rather, I prefer not think so. I don't want to believe that an external force dictates whether or not I will write. That said, if you do suffer from writer's block then I believe, deeply, that if you can define what is holding back the flow of words then you can resolve...