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 This is a continuation of my blogging here at WdC |
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This will be a blog for my writing, maybe with (too much) personal thrown in. I am hoping it will be a little more interactive, with me answering questions, helping out and whatnot. If it falls this year (2024), then I may stop the whole blogging thing, but that's all a "wait and see" scenario. An index of topics can be found here: "Writing Blog No.2 Index"  Feel free to comment and interact. |
| Fact-checking Schnujo NEEDS to do homework has reached out with another question – she wants to know about fact-checking, especially with facts changing. No matter what sort of non-fiction you write, research is vital. And, in this day and age, really, stupidly difficult. The Internet might be a liberating force and makes life easier (allegedly) in so many ways, but when it comes to research… Yikes! Yes, the Internet has long made research hard. Sort of. Here’s research basics, by the way: "20240712 Contemporary Research For Writers" .Basically, in my opinion, research should not have changed from the way we did it in the 1980s. But people think going back like that is “hard.” It is time-consuming, but I cannot see it being harder than the system that has been foisted upon us now. However, it should not be so hard that the Director of Health in the USA (RFK Jr) feels the need to tell blatant falsehoods, misrepresent data, and make up references. That is just a combination of laziness, stupidity and sheer bloody-mindedness. Online I am going to start with researching online. GOOD 1. Peer-reviewed papers. While you have access to research papers which have been peer-reviewed in a much easier manner than having to go to various universities hoping they have the journal you need, you do need to pay for access (sometimes a lot) or, like me, be a permanent student. That is easier for people like me, yes, but not for the general public. Peer-reviewed papers, where the reviews support the paper (and not every peer review is supportive; there is a paper often cited by a particular group as being peer-reviewed, but the reviews were negative, so be careful) are the best place to find information. And there are journals for nearly everything! So, if you have access, first point of call. 2. dot-gov. Sites marked “.gov” are supposed to be trustworthy places for governmental information, including geography, government, laws, etc. Some governments have a lot of oversight over their websites, but generally the “.gov” sites of the USA, Australia, Canada, UK are very separate from the politics of the ruling government of the day. That is an easy access and readily available site. I did say USA there, but at the moment that is even not the case, so you need to be aware of political changes. Also “.gov” sites do not cover everything. 3. Encyclopaedias. Then we have online encyclopaedias. Brittanica.com is generally regarded as the best online encyclopaedia, but that is because it maintains the paper version’s format and style. Basic info presented for people to use to begin further research, with citations and references. If you understand German, apparently the German equivalent is also very good. 4. Trove. Trove is the Australian online trove of digitised old newspapers with a good search option. Just newspapers scanned in and there to use for free. I know there is a similar set-up in the UK. There is a great US one at chroniclingamerica.loc.gov. Most others require payment. Three things, however – searching can be difficult because the scanning can obscure the words to not make for an easy search. Two, journalistic truth is a thing that can be suspect. It is not good nowadays, where biases abound in the reporting of news; in the old days, they would make stuff up to fill in the gaps. And third, opinion was often reported as actual news, not an op-ed piece. So you do need to be careful. But, in general, a great resource. 5. Public media. This is the media owned and financed (but not operated) by the government. The ABC in Australia (there is some left bias, but that has diminished markedly, and is not as bad as the right bias in any other Australian media), the BBC in the UK (some royalist bias), and PBS in the USA (depending on their funding). Still, for media sites, these three are by far the best when it comes to accuracy of information. MEDIOCRE 1. Wikipedia. Wikipedia is good only for the footnotes. As an information source, it does tend towards being rubbish. Like all user-curated sites, because it is written and edited by people who think they know, the information should not ever be taken at face value. And, doing some research for my monster book, I discovered some of the footnotes are made up and the references do not exist. It’s not like I am looking for obscure stuff, but Wikipedia’s “vetting” process has allowed falsehoods in. Literally anyone with an Internet connection (who has not been previously banned) can edit or write for Wikipedia; it is a communal pit of some good stuff and some made-up stuff and a lot of opinion stuff. Not a great resource in and of itself, and hardly a usable resource. It is banned as a university reference in Australia. 2. dot-org. The “.org” suffix indicates the site is run by a registered organisation, including charities, but excluding businesses. The thing is, they all have a barrow to push, so their bias is right there in their established name and statement of organisation. However, because a lot of charities are run through them, blatant falsehoods (especially in Australia and the UK) can see them lose that “.org” suffix and so taxes would apply. Be wary, and find other sources, but they can be a good place to start. 3. Interviews with experts/ witnesses. Why is this in mediocre? Ask a police officer. If you have three witnesses to a crime, you will get three different versions of events, even though they all saw the same thing and are sure they are telling it perfectly. Experts are often a good source, but even they will not know everything and might make suppositions on areas they do not know based on what they do know, they might have biases, or they might just be at the far end of the Dunning-Kruger Effect and be unsure of their own knowledge. But an expert or someone who was actually there is always going to be better than hearing it second or third hand. 4. General websites. Sure, general interest to narrow interest websites are great resources. However, unless they have included their own research sources, trusting them can be fraught with danger. Is that information they have found, information they half-remember, something they were told, something they saw on Facebook, or something they made up? And how do you know? Further, some websites go out of date if they are not upkept. A great example is the old dinosaurs.com. It is now an “untrustworthy site” because of viruses and bugs, but it was last updated in 2007, before the latest information on feathering was really established. Great site, but out of date based on new discoveries. Less trustworthy than a “.org” but still a good starting place. BAD 1. Social media. People make stuff up, put forth conspiracy theories, use anecdotes as evidence, everything on social media. And they misrepresent themselves all the time. Problem is, people see it, believe it, then put it forth as the truth. Completely useless. And memes mean nothing. 2. Blogs/ Vlogs. This is a website or video site where a person simply writes/ talks about their own opinions and life. Different to social media in that it is intended to be personal, but with all the same pitfalls. 3. Private media. This is media owned by one person or a corporation. Their biases affect the “facts” they put forth. 4. Artificial Intelligence (AI). AI is a programme that learns. Here is the problem with AI – it learns from the Internet. Not just places which are good sources, but social media. In fact, for a long while the only site that allowed AI to scrape it was Reddit, so AI was telling people blatant falsehoods. When Grammarly was first released, it was just a form of MS Word’s F7 spell/grammar check with a function that allowed for summarisation. However, now it is based on AI and is learning from the Internet, it makes more and more mistakes to the point that it is useless. tl;dr Finding actual hard information on the Internet is very hit or miss, and separating the wheat from the chaff – fact-checking –is like looking for a needle in a haystack. (Metaphor mixing is my super-power.) The upsurge in user-curated platforms, like the sheer volume of wikis, ancestry.com and social media, means facts are buried under crap. User-curated sites are generally not good, and they are what the online world is being filled with… Offline Let’s move to offline research. In this case I am not going to go good, mediocre, bad because they are all these things all at once! 1. Books. Books are, of course, a great resource. Especially in the “old days”, publishing was expensive, so we did not see the plethora of self-published books we do now, and because of laws regarding dissemination of information, the publishers had to ensure that the information was accurate, or as accurate as possible. However, those information laws are no longer in existence, and with self-publishing so cheap (comparatively), anybody can print a book about anything. Unfortunately, too many modern books use the Internet as a referencing source, and so it does cast their information in a dubious light. So, what to do? It’s easy, actually. Utilise books from the twentieth century. Not all are perfect (the 90s saw a lot of opinion as fact tomes start to appear as creative non-fiction started to take hold), but more often than not, they are more useful than the Internet. This will require reading, and will require not being able to use the “search” function (e-books excluded) but the index, but I have found when researching my book that it is better to be safe than sorry. Do not dismiss sites like Project Gutenberg, Internet Archive, et al. either for electronic books and scanned items that are much older. Sort of like the best of both worlds. 2. Letters. If you want information about a time period, reading letters sent by those alive at the time probably give the best impression of life. Yes, they will be biased, maybe ill-informed in some areas, but their observations are coming from real people. Letters from soldiers give a much more impressive and personal history of war than a textbook, for example. It is not a source of undeniable truth, but these perceptions can help colour a non-fiction work. 3. Newspapers. Everything I said about Trove is here, only there is more bias in many of today’s papers. Of course, reading the old papers yet to be digitised is just Trove the long way around. 4. Word of mouth/anecdotes. This is often a good start, but should never be taken as gospel. People’s memories are fallible, they change over time and over telling, and they could be born of mis-perception. Documentaries I have put documentaries separate as they exist in all spaces, on and offline. And I include podcasts here as well. Documentaries tend towards a bias the film-maker wants to put forth. They might not lie outright – and most documentaries made pre-Internet were pretty good in this regard – but they will pick and choose the information to support their arguments, maybe show footage out of order, maybe look at the past through a modern eye. Again, they can be a great start, but they should not be taken as the be-all and end-all. However, two things have made modern documentaries – say the past 10 years or so – more untrustworthy. The first is the “mockumentary”, where a fake documentary is created. The Last Dragon and Mermaids: The Body Found are the two most notorious examples. Though they were admitted to being fake after the fact, there are many others out there that could well be following their footsteps. The second is the use of deep-fakes, AI created visuals and CGI created films, then all of this is put forth as real. Computers have destroyed trust in what we see in the documentary format. Dunning-Kruger Effect I mentioned in passing the Dunning-Kruger Effect, and this is something that needs to be considered when looking at sources, especially from so-called experts who blog/vlog or appear as talking heads on shows. What this effect states basically is this: a person with a little or surface level knowledge of a topic tends to over-estimate how much they know and are confident in espousing that information; a person with some knowledge realises there is so much more to learn, and think they will never get there; an expert knows there is still more to learn and understands they will never know everything, so while they speak with some confidence, are never completely sure. They will also back up their statements with evidence. The rule of thumb is if someone acts like they know everything, they tend to know next to nothing.  So, in general, fact-checking is really hard. It will take a lot of work to ensure the truth. But it is worth it. |
| External Writerings June 2025 Okay, I admit I forgot, but it is time I listed the writing I have done for Weekend Notes (and any other places that could be bothered publishing me online). Songs only this time. One is a memorial to a dead singer. Standard stuff, but lots to listen to! Remember, you do not have to listen to the songs (though I would be grateful if you did), but every look at the articles from a different IP address with no ad blockers helps me out in my increasingly desperate attempts to make money as a person who writes. A list of songs with “today” in the title. A list of songs with “tomorrow” in the title. A list of songs with “yesterday” in the title. Remembering Brian Wilson through Beach Boys and solo songs. A list of anti-war songs. Not songs about peace, but distinctly anti-war. 5 articles this month. I have to do at least 4 to keep my ranking in the top 25 contributors, so your clicks will also help me in that regard. As usual, if you want a certain topic covered in songs (I can do films and books as well), leave a comment below. I would love to give readers what they want. |
| Novel #13 Two years passed. In this time I went back to university and managed to get a second degree, but it was a compacted degree, meaning we did three years of work in eighteen months. That means most of my writing was assignments and the like. But it also meant I had a lot of ideas swirling around. I did write many of them down, hoping to get to them one day when I had time. And after that time at uni was over, the first one I came to ended up being a 52200 word story called Power. The concept was something I had been thinking about for a while – what if magic existed in the real world? Not a Hogwarts school, not a different world, an alternate world, but in our world. This story (an urban fantasy, I guess) tells the tale of an evil magic-user trying to usurp the power of great magicians in order to rule the magic of the world. He is confronted by a young man who almost died in a motorcycle accident, and who has a young girl as his own student. Of course, in the end, the good guys win. It’s just that sort of story. I guess it could be called young adult, but I don’t think it really fits into any real age category. As far as the story goes, yet again we have a whiny main character. The young girl was based on a girl I went to high school with and who I had recently at that stage caught up with again after many years. In high school she was always pretty needy, and so I made her a bit younger and turned her into the young girl. The bad guy is just a 2-dimensional Loki-type character. But, if you ignore the characterisations, the story itself actually reads as something unique. I think the descriptions of the magic battles work okay, though I should have chosen a better arena than roof-tops at one stage. The metaphysical stuff even reads okay. Just a shame the characters are not real interesting, and that ever-present ellipsis dominates the punctuation. This one was never submitted anywhere, and the one person who read it called it, “Okay.” That’s it. I’m guessing that means she thought it was crap and didn’t want to hurt my feelings. Hard to argue with her, though. Excerpt: Something was about to happen. And he just knew that it was another Power surge. It was coming. He wondered exactly what they were, what was causing them. And he wondered also how in the hell he knew? And, in that moment of doubt, he allowed his mind to fly before he could control it, bring it back to himself. But it came back with two words: Page 4. That made no sense. And despite his misgivings, he concentrated briefly on those words. An image of the front of that day’s local newspaper entered his mind and he nodded to himself. He strode to the kitchen table and grabbed it from where Amanda had left it. Page four… “Girl found dead in apartment,” the headline read. The photograph was not anyone who looked familiar, but she was a pleasant looking young girl. He quickly scanned the story. Christy Moore, twenty years old, a few months short of turning twenty-one. Had not turned up for a job interview on Saturday. Sunday night her father broke into her apartment and found her laying on the floor. No sign of violence. Autopsy showed a massive cerebral haemorrhage, as though her brain had “exploded”. International investigators had been called in to work out what could do that to a human brain. Something struck a chord in Paul’s mind. Her brain had exploded? That was the exact word the article had used. So why would this story be sent to his mind? Power. Something with Power had killed her. And that meant she had to have had some Power as well. Not enough to be able to put up any sort of a defence, but there was Power there. He swallowed and quickly read through the rest of the paper. Another story struck him. A ninety-eight year old man had died in a nursing home of a stroke. The story only written because they were trying to trace his family. He had been in the home for forty years, according to their records, and his family appeared to have abandoned him some time ago. Why would that story interest him? A stroke; something to do with the brain… As much as he tried to deny it to himself, he knew why he was attracted to that tale. There was Power involved there as well. He closed his eyes and tried to clear his mind, but to no avail. This is one of those stories where idea overwhelmed delivery. Characters were second to the idea as well. I think the idea behind it is quite good – and I have revisited magic in our world since, but not to this extent – but the writing is not. After Mary, maybe study had dulled my writing muse a little. I mean, I still wrote short stories and poems, but Power was a real let-down for me personally. I only hoped it would get better. |
| ARCs Schnujo NEEDS to do homework asked me a heap of questions. I looked at the easy answers in "20250702 Answering Questions" , but there are two more topics to examine. This is the second.The benefit of ARC readers (at least for self-publishing -- IDK about with traditional) It seems that these questions have been quite anti-trad publishing, but I do understand most people on WdC prefer the self-publishing route. I don’t (and cannot, with very specific exceptions, see why people would), and have put forth my views enough in this blog. Now, for those unaware, an ARC is an Advanced Reader Copy. It is also called an ARE (Advanced Reader Edition) or a Pre-Release Copy. These are the copies that go out after the proof-reading stage. They are sometimes missing things like links, dedication and full publisher details, but they always have the ISBN or ASIN (though nowadays they tend to be as complete as possible). Sometimes the cover is stamped with something to indicate it is a pre-release copy. In the past ten, fifteen years, most ARCs I have seen (say, 95%) have been e-books. They are given to readers who then register them with the publisher (I am guessing this does not happen with self-published, so they can just be shared around) and read them. Why do them? Reviews. It is that simple. You tend to give the ARCs to people who will be sympathetic to your cause to get the first lot of reviews as good as possible. Amazon sometimes doesn’t allow ARC reviews (what day of the week is it?) but Goodreads, personal blogs, Bookgram, Facebook, etc. all do. It gets you out there with a review before the story hits the public, and suddenly people are confronted with a bunch of 4 and 5 star ratings, which does help push it in front of more eyes. ARC reviewers will be expected to give more than just a “this book was good” sort of fluffy review, but to list some things that they really did like. You want people who read in that genre, and who know at least your name or the name of your publisher. I guess self-published people choose their ARCs. I am a regular ARC reader for poet Sakshi Narula, for example, and have done some ARC reading for some self-published works by people I know. Many publishers, on the other hand, have lists of ARC readers who they know will give honest reviews, but they also pick and choose them from the list based on what they like to read. I was an ARC reader for a US-based company (that sadly died in the pandemic with my accepted book unpublished…) and read around 4 of their books a year. Now, are ARCs important? Publishers seem to think they are. I am in two minds. Yes, because those first positive reviews can matter. No, because there’s a heap of sales I’ve missed out on. But that could be the greed part of me doing this for a living talking… However, there is nothing better in marketing than to be able to put a five-star review with a complimentary comment on the ‘please buy this’ blog post! Anyway, so that’s ARCs. |
| Types Of Editing Schnujo NEEDS to do homework asked me a heap of questions. I looked at the easy answers in "20250702 Answering Questions" , but there are two more topics to examine. This is the first.The different kinds of edits, when to get them, and why So, there are 4 different types of editing. 1) Developmental editing This is the big picture stuff, and is what a good beta reader does. They look at the plot, the characters, the facts, the inconsistencies, and the way the different levels of story (plot, sub-plots, tertiary character arcs, etc.) work, together and on their own. So it is an advanced form of beta reading. Extremely important in long works. 2. Line editing This is looking at how easily something is able to be read. This is where things like paragraphing, info-dumps, run-on sentences, sentence fragments, etc. are examined. There is also a quick look at grammar, punctuation, spelling and homophones, but the main thing is how readable a piece is. It is like a more detailed beta read. However, the main thing a good line editor will look at is show vs tell. They should indicate where the tell is and leave it up to the writer to change it to show. This is the main thing you will get out of a line editor, and it is so important this is done to make the book the best it can be for a reader. Line editing occurs after beta reading. 3. Copyediting This is where every single line is looked at in detail. The story is ignored here – the first two look at that – and this is where the actual technical aspects of writing are pored over. Grammar, punctuation and spelling are hit hard. If a person needs a lot of copyediting, a traditional publisher will generally pass on them, because editors cost a lot, and this is a huge expense; they might have to sell an extra 50-plus books to pay for it. I’ll give a personal example. Invasive Species had a grand total of 23 copyedits needed for a 96k-plus word book when the editor at the publisher went through it. This meant the publisher (AM Ink) did not have to pay a lot for an editor, and used the money set aside for that in marketing, and the book has been my best seller. The publisher had more money because I gave them the cleanest copy I could, and used this to market the book. Many writers – and I have encountered them here at WdC – think a copyeditor will clean up their work. Two things – copyeditors are human, and the more mistakes they are confronted with, the more they are likely to miss; and it makes you look like you don’t care. Self copyediting before submitting to a publisher or paying for an editor (and the more mistakes, the more it will cost you; I have worked as a freelance editor, I know) can save money and improve your own writing technique and style. End rant. 4. Proof-reading Proof-reading is the final run-through. The book has been accepted and edited, or you have done the self-publishing work, and you get a galley proof. A proof-reader goes through to see if anything is amiss. This includes missed edits, names that have changed, formatting issues, things like that. This takes place right before final publication. Even in short stories, I am generally given a galley proof copy of the book and expected to go through my own story to find errors (including the author bio). Last chance to fix mistakes here! And that is the types of editing, and when they happen. A lot of editors will do line and copy editing at the same time, but I prefer to keep them separate. I will do one or the other for a writer. I do feel that a different line editor and copyeditor help. First, it is two sets of eyes; second, the second time they read it, they know what is happening or going to happen and might miss errors through complacency or familiarity. Developmental comes with the beta reader. Line editing is something I feel a writer should pay for. Copyediting is done by the traditional publisher, so a self-publisher will need to pay for it. And proof-reading is generally done by the writer themselves. Hope that explains it all. |
| Answering Questions Schnujo NEEDS to do homework asked me a heap of questions. I am going to answer the easy ones or previously answered ones here, and use the rest in upcoming columns. 1) Good 1st lines/ Good 1st pages This is so subjective as to be insane. What one editor/ publisher/ reader likes, another will hate. For example, I have been told to never start with dialogue; I’ve sold more than a dozen that start just that way. But one thing that you should never do is start with an info-dump of world-building or personal description. However, I’ve covered it here: "20240612 Starting A Story" 2. Good endings Covered here: "20240618 Endings" 3. Writing unlikeable protagonists we still want to read about Not 100% sure if I did this properly, but protagonists are covered: "20241208 Protagonist and Antagonist" I have to say, I have not come across this much in literature, except where the villain is the protagonist. Artemis Fowl (in the books) is the only great example where this is done deliberately. 4. The difference between alpha and beta readers and why we probably want both (at least for self-publishing -- maybe traditional doesn't) I cover readers here: "20240522 Readers" However, the tl;dr is: alpha readers are not necessary, in my opinion, for any writer. But beta readers are vital for all writers. 5. Writing what readers want to read, not just what you want to write How long is a piece of string? This is sort of like bandwagon jumping, and today’s flavour of the month will be tomorrow’s cringe. I always say write what you want to write. You are the first reader, after all. Don’t write to a market is my advice. 6. Book marketing on the cheap No idea. I publish traditionally – my publishers market for me. But I will say this: nowadays, social media is only selling to friends and people who know you, and whereas in the late 2000s through to the pandemic, socials really helped, now it is not making perceivable differences. I have no idea, in other words. 7. Know your audience Covered here: "20241014 Know Your Audience" So, thanks, Schnujo NEEDS to do homework, and the other 2 things you asked for will be upcoming topics of their own! If anyone else has things they want me to look at, drop a line in the comments or Newsfeed or in an email! |
| Letting ”The Idea Tap” Flow From Beholden: So my question concerns this only: how does one open the faucet of ideas so that they become a steady source of new and interesting stories? This came about because I have a habit of writing a lot (in this case, during the course of the "The Beatles Musical Extravaganza" ).So… how do I write so much? I have had to think about it. In my current state of mental health fluctuation I have been stupidly self-aware, so here goes. First, everything is an idea. If it is out of the ordinary, I write it down. It might be one word, might be sentence or question, might be a paragraph. Are all of them going to be used? Probably not, but you need them. Second, I’ve mentioned in a previous post that I use “what if?” questions. And when it comes to something like The Beatles, listening to the songs, a lot of these questions occurred to me… and I wrote them all down. Now that I’ve written that, that is all well and good, but how do these ideas appear in the first place? One, I relax. I put myself in a situation where the only distractions are ones I have chosen – music normally. I turn the phone and Internet off and (again, unless I choose it) away from people. If there is a stressor (worry about work, about relationships, about anything), then I do not produce as much, so relaxation is very much the first key. Second, I do not sit down to write something – I sit down to write anything. I let the ideas come to me, use old ideas I have written down, or get inspiration from external sources (rewrites of scenes of books, films, TV shows, song lyrics, other people’s poems – all of these are fair game) and let them fester and come out however they want. I do not try to channel them into a form. They start as free-form concepts. I am not a planner, so it is common that one of these free-form concepts will just continue on and, voilà, I’ve written something. Now, here is where a lot of writers get hung up, and it comes down to two things: 1) I do not care about quality, & 2) I do not sit down to write in specifics. Quality first. A lot of writers will look at what they are writing, decide it isn’t any good, give up and go to something else. On the other hand, I don’t care. I’ve written whole novels that I will never show anyone because they are rubbish. That is because the idea needs to get out. This does three things. First, it gets you into the habit of just writing. Second, it stops that blockage in the mind of an idea unrealised stopping everything else from coming out. Third, it might be able to be rewritten better. As such, I do not care about how good a work is until it’s finished. I just get it out of my system As an aside, if a work bogs down and does not work I throw on a makeshift ending before going onto the next thing. Again, this gives an ending and so stops blockage. Next, writing specifics. I do not sit down to write a poem, short story, novella, novel. I just write. Even in a short story, it might be a drabble, flash, standard short, long short. Doesn’t matter. I do not dictate to my writing how long something has to be in the case of prose. I just write until it is finished. As for poetry, I nearly always start writing prose, but if it suggests itself as a series of rhymes, poem it is. This only comes from being relaxed enough to let the mind wander everywhere. Finally, I never have just one thing going at a time. If something in a story is not working, I distract my mind from it by going to one of the other things I am working on. That means I always have something to write, and writer’s block is not an issue because one story might stumble, but the other 3 don’t. I hope that answers the question. |
| Novel #12 The next novel was something of a magnum opus. It took more than a year to write, then another year of rewriting before I was happy with it, finishing finally halfway through 2001. I pretty much worked only on this, with just a few short stories making appearances in this time. Mary clocks in at almost 124,000 words. It is huge. In its original form it reached 150,000, but some judicious editing and rewriting helped knock that down. It tells the tale of Mary and the former police officer who looks after her. Mary is, in fact, the reincarnation or re-coming or whatever of Mary, mother of God. And the story tells the tale from her odd birth, through to her giving birth to the new Messiah. There is, however, someone out to stop this from happening – the wife of a televangelist who thinks she is doing God’s work, but her God is not quite who she thinks it is. There are also three wise men and a Swedish guy who helps save the day. This story is based on a theme I have visited a few times – the second coming. A long short story or short novella called II followed the death of a new Messiah in Adelaide, a story I was quite proud of at the time I wrote it (end of high school), but now reads rather stereotypically. A few short stories have also been done, and even an essay. But this tale, I think, captures it best. It has some very overt religious themes… which, it must be said, some religious friends who have read it were offended by. How dare an atheist examine religion like this, and write about Christ! Yes, not about the content, as such, but about me as a writer daring to write it. Oh well – offending people could mean it would sell, and make a really bad film. This was entered in two novel writing competitions (including one which cost me $50), and forwarded to a number of agents (either 6 or 10). All passed. I guess. I only heard back from 5. It was then submitted to a number of publishers, including quite a few that I would not normally consider, but only because of the subject material. I heard nothing from 5 of them, received form rejections from another 6, received a detailed rejection from 1, and received an encouraging letter from another. Over the course of 2 years, it was rejected 19 times (21 if you count the competitions). And yet I still don’t think it is that bad. Mary herself is another in a long line of whiny teenagers I have created, but her police officer charge, Jason, is not too bad. His former partner (in both senses of the word) is well written, I think, with realistic motivations. The evil woman and the good guy Swede are two-dimensional ciphers. However, the best characters are the three wise men. I probably gave them too much page space, but I liked all of them. I still think there’s a market for this, and one day I may try again to get this out there. Excerpt: The room at the back of the Church was not what Mary would have expected for a place of worship. It looked like a school class-room. The mis-matched seats were all set up in a circle, interspersed with bean bags and two couches. Against one wall was a large screen television set up in front of three old sofas, two lounge chairs that matched none of these with a few more gaps that were obviously designed to fit in some of the chairs set into the circle. The teenage girl approached tentatively. She was very late and had waited outside until she saw that the people in the circle – twenty-one of them; she had counted them five times – had stood up and were gathering around a small kitchen-like set-up behind a door near the television. It was Dave who first noticed her. “Mary!” he cried, running across and grabbing her in an embrace before she could react. And then he was leading her towards a beaming group of people. “Everyone, this is the girl I was telling you about: Mary. Mary, this is everyone.” “Sorry I’m late,” she stammered. “Got held up at home.” Dave smiled at her and she could see that it was genuine… and infectious. “That’s all right. You just missed the opening prayer and a bit of a discussion. But we’re all about to grab a cup of tea and watch the movies I rented this afternoon.” He was talking at a hundred miles an hour and she saw some of the others snicker at him, but it was friendly and light-hearted; he actually seemed to be genuinely liked amongst this group of people. “So grab a cuppa and come sit over with us,” a girl to his left offered, taking her gently out of his grip and leading her into the kitchen while the sounds of chairs being moved behind her reached her ears. “I’m Imogen, but everyone here calls me Immy,” she said once they were alone. “Mary.” She was barely starting to relax; she felt all too much like an outsider. “I know.” She smiled and it was warm and inviting. “Dave’s told us all about you. But I gather you’ve only spoken to him once?” Mary nodded and she laughed a little. “He’s like that. Talks and talks… or maybe you hadn’t noticed.” “I did.” Mary finally giggled a little. “So, let me get this straight – you’re new here in town and you’re interested in old buildings.” She was not mocking her, but seemed to be genuinely interested. And so Mary merely nodded. “Good. I hope you enjoy our company.” “Thank-you.” Mary felt the smile widen across her face. “And what religious persuasion are you?” Imogen asked innocently as she poured her own cup of coffee. Mary stared at the cup she held in her hands. “I’m not,” she muttered. “Sorry.” Imogen just gazed back at her. “Really?” “Really.” She was starting to feel uncomfortable again. Although not the third degree, to her own scared mind it was too close. She was feeling the outsider again… “Look, maybe I should go. I don’t really belong and…” “No, I’m sorry.” The expression on Imogen’s face softened. “I don’t mean to pry. But I’d like to know one day why you feel that way.” Mary stared and felt her smile drop quickly. Too quickly. “A relative of mine was killed by a religious cult.” “I’m sorry.” And the tone of voice was genuine. “Forget it. It’s your life. I really shouldn’t have pried.” So, this is a really long religious thriller involving a lot of religion and yet taking the concept of God and Jesus quite seriously. I think being an atheist made it easier for me to do this without the thinking I needed to stand up for my religion or whatever. I still think it is one of my better efforts. Just a shame no-one agrees with me… |
| Blog Entries So… I have no other ideas of what more to write to help authors. If you, the three people who read this, have anything you’d like me to look at or have anything you think I might be able to help with, leave a comment, and I will see what I can do. In the meantime, I am going to continue to outline my novel writing journey, as well as I can, at least whenever I have nothing else to write about. I think I am also going to re-post some things from my old blog (non-WdC), updating them as I go on. So… if you have anything at all, let me know. Otherwise, I’m going to be completely boringly historical. |
| Novel #11 The end of 1998 saw a 66300 word novel appear, Comeback. After Some Other People, it was something of a letdown at the time, but reading it nowadays, it isn’t that awful. As it was, I sent it to 2 publishers and an agent, but never heard from any of them. I think my biggest problem at the time was that it was a real departure for me. This one was just a thriller. No horror, not fantasy, no monsters, nothing supernatural – just three people not coping at all with anything, and their lives – their second chances at lives – spiralling out of control. It was also written in an odd way. The opening scene with the taxi driver was written while I was in high school, while the ending in the hospital was written a few years later. It was only when I got them together a few years later again that I realised it was the same story and this was born. I had a character first, and the story came from what happened to him. At the time, it seemed forced, I guess. Nowadays, it is how I’ve had more success with my writering – character first. And maybe it started here for me? It tells the tale of a British guitar hero from the 1960s and 1970s now living in Sydney. He chances upon a US singer who made his name in the 1970s, who had come to Sydney to try and revive his career in musical theatre. Both are down on their luck, but this meeting inspires them to try and get together for one last chance at fame. This results in a rather demoralising tour of country New South Wales. During the course of this the singer does something which jeopardises the tour and appears to kill himself, while the guitarist hooks up with a middle-aged, long-term fan. They end up in South Australia, and then things steadily go from bad to worse. There’s a lot of death, and some convenient career chances appearing, but the story itself is a different one for me. The guitarist was a combination of Eric Clapton and Jeff Beck; the singer was John Farnham, Del Shannon and Roy Orbison. And I wrote the whole thing as though I was seeing a movie in my mind. That often happens, but this was clear. I visualised the entire thing, and so my descriptions are somewhat lacking – I could see it all, so writing it down seemed superfluous. This is another story that I should go back and rewrite, especially the downfall of the singer, and the final confrontation in Port Lincoln. So while it’s certainly not the best thing ever written (and the ellipses are ever-present again), it’s still not too bad a story, I think. Having said all that, it seemed by this stage of my writing, I was finally getting the hang of putting things down on paper in a way that was almost believable. Excerpt: A crowd. That was all it came down to, that single beast that the multitude becomes when a performer is on stage. A crowd… Just staring at that anonymous sea made everything worth it. No matter what other emotions churn through a performer’s mind – feelings of nausea, worthlessness, inferiority, lack of confidence, foolishness – there is one over-riding factor that always drags them back to the same situation, over and over again. It was something Richard had always revelled in and sought, something that Michael had deliberately gone out of his way to forget. And it swamped over the two of them in a tidal wave of love. Michael especially… he knew immediately he stepped foot upon the stage that that really was what was missing from his life. Richard had been one hundred per cent right. That one simple, little word, that one feeling that really drove everyone who ever appeared on stage to go back again and again, no matter how bad they knew they were. The Crowd… And their power over the crowd… He had let his other emotions get the better of him last time he had done this, the vomiting and fear had made him forget how good this really could feel. But this time it was different… but also the same. Different to the way he remembered it, but the same, he knew, as it had probably felt to him when he had first started. The small club atmosphere, the faceless crowd having some features, all eager and happy just to see and hear him play, the sounds of people having a good time and enjoying themselves, a partner living up to and feeling and contributing to the whole scene as completely as the crowd. He would never have dreamed it would have felt this good again… “Fuckin’ brilliant,” Richard whispered in awe as he emerged from the bathroom, having towelled himself down. Both were sweating profusely – due more to nerves than any great heat or exertion – and Michael’s fingers actually hurt, but it was worth it; the crowd here at the hotel had been larger than either could dare dream of when they had started all of this – full, the barman had said, and that meant in excess of five hundred people from a town with a population of less than five thousand – and, though not as enthusiastic as especially Richard would have liked, deeply appreciative of the music. Especially the music… A thriller, I guess, with a tragic ending, and this one was definitely based around the characters – they had come before I had a story to put them into, and this was a very real case of me writing their tale. Even the ending was not what I had really planned on doing, but I made the love interest a money-hungry bitch and it was all maybe too much a character change in her, but I was focused too much on the musicians. However, reading through the story for this… it is not too shabby. I think this would make a great film. Maybe… one day… |
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