Unspoken Words

The content of my short guide, How To Survive Online Writing Forums, has been added to the blog and has its own page.  It’s still available on the Critters Bar writing forum, and a pdf version is also available for download from the blog page. All comments welcome.

My short piece, a 250-worder titled Broken Waters, is up today at Every Day Fiction. Feel free to read and comment.

http://www.everydayfiction.com/broken-waters-by-bob-jacobs/

What’s the best writing how-to book you’ve ever read?

What’s that? You don’t believe in them? Move along please. Thank you.

I’ve read a leaning tower of them since I began writing almost six years ago. Some I’ve found really useful, some less so, but all of them have had something to offer.

If you like how-to books, you’ll no doubt have your favourites, as do I. Without doubt this year my favourite has been Make a Scene: Crafting a Powerful Story One Scene at a Time, by Jordan E. Rosenfeld. Once in a while a book comes along that really makes a difference, and this – for me – is one such book.

Rosenfeld breaks the book up into four major sections:

• Architecture of a Scene
• The Core Elements and the Scene
• Scene Types
• Other Scene Considerations

Right from the first chapter I knew I was holding in my hands a book that was going to help me to prepare for writing my novel, and I haven’t been disappointed. It has affected not only my writing, but my reading, too.

More details available here:

http://www.amazon.com/Make-Scene-Crafting-Powerful-Story/dp/1582974799

If you’re like me and you’re making the change from writing short stories to writing a novel, add this to your list of wants for Christmas.

And feel free to share your own recommendations.

Metaphors and similes. They’re like windy days: some days they blow you away completely, some days they just make your eyes water. (Sorry). We’ve all seen some good ones, and some not so good ones. Here’s one I just came across that stopped me in my tracks, from the novel Redemption Ark by Alastair Reynolds. This is science fiction, no less:

In the distance, a billion pebbles sighed orgasmically under the assault of another sea wave.

Remind anyone of their honeymoon? Here it is again in context, in case that makes a difference:

The silver sun burned overhead, a blank coin shining through a caul of grey sea fog. Skade settled into a flesh-and-blood body, as she had before. She was standing on a flat-topped rock; the air was cold to the bone and prickled with ozone and the briny stench of rotting seaweed. In the distance, a billion pebbles sighed orgasmically under the assault of another sea wave.

So, have you got any good ones? Or bad ones? Got any real stinkers? Let’s have them.

The Novel

Yes, yes, yes, I know I said I’d start writing it in June.

No, no, no, I haven’t started yet.

What’s it to you, Big Nose?

I’m still reading as much contemporary science fiction as I can, and mostly enjoying it. I’m also reading up on science fact – latest theories on time travel, black holes, worm holes, parallel universes and that kind of thing. There’s some really interesting stuff out there (no, really, there is). Anyway, I consider this to be an essential part of my preparation for writing the novel and won’t begin writing until I feel that I’m ready. Right now, I’d expect that to be just after Christmas. Maybe even January 1st. But if I’m not ready then, it’ll be when I am.

However, I still intend to have the novel written and revised by the end of 2010. That has always been the case and that’s still the case, so, even though the start has slipped by months, I plan to have it ready on time. How? Well, simply put, the original plan was really lazy and assumed a typing speed of around 30 words a fortnight with time off for good behaviour, or something equally as silly. I know I can write it faster than originally planned, comfortably in fact, so that’s what I’ll do. Okay?

Critters Bar

I love that place. But I haven’t been there in over a month. What? Well, Ian Rochford has kindly taken over the admin role (thanks Ian), and I’m taking time out not only from Critters Bar but from all such writing forums and online gathering places for a while so that I can concentrate on the novel. It’s hard. I do miss the interaction. But it’s got to be done. The last 12 months I’ve managed to set myself free from all kinds of things in order to free up time for the novel, and pulling out of Critters Bar for a while was the last step. I will be back, I’m just not sure when right now.

Goldfish Bowl

Still meeting up with other writers locally every couple of weeks, and last night we had a workshop on ‘the opening’, the second such workshop as we had one on characterisation a couple of meetings ago. Anyhow, it seemed to go down pretty well and though we were relatively light on numbers the discussion was very worthwhile and we ended up over-running.

Writing

The last stuff I wrote was during the July Blast story-a-day initiative in Critters Bar, and I think I managed about 16 or 17 pieces during the month, something like that. Not quite one a day, but still. Anyway, Dogzplot Flash Fiction took one of the pieces (Chrono-something) from the July Blast recently:

http://dogzplot.blogspot.com/2009/10/chromo-something-bob-jacobs.html

and the good folks over at The Pygmy Giant recently took one (Imperfectly Formed):

http://thepygmygiant.wordpress.com/2009/10/29/imperfectly-formed/

and Every Day Fiction are due to put one up (Broken Waters) on November 26th:

http://www.everydayfiction.com/

Yes, yes, yes, I know they’re very short. Yes, yes, yes, I know they’re very simple. If you want something longer and more meaningful you’ll have to wait for the novel, which is thirteen-point-something months away from being completed (let alone published). But it’ll be worth the wait. Honest.

And those places are all worth a visit if you’re looking for some short fiction to read.

Okay. That’s all for now, folks.

“The road to hell is paved with adverbs.” ~ Stephen King.

“So is Carrie.” ~ Bob Jacobs

One of the writing forums I’ve been hanging in recently had a discussion about using italics for dialogue – any dialogue, including internal dialogue, thoughts, or telepathic communications. Apparently, italics must not be used. To quote the source (except that the original used bold text): “Don’t denote any form of dialogue by italicizing”.

One of the problems with making absolute statements like this is that you’ll often find exceptions to them in published fiction. How can this happen? Well, it’s quite simple. Someone published it that way. Maybe they don’t hang around in the right forums.

I did point this out, but was asked to provide something from an authoritative source that said it was okay to use italics. Apparently, the Chicago Manual of Style doesn’t think it’s okay, and apparently that is an authoritative source. Now, I don’t know about you, but in my opinion there is no authoritative source that tells you how you must write your fiction. There is in fact no authority that says what you can and cannot do. There is certainly no authority that tells you whether you can or can’t use italics for dialogue, or thoughts, or telepathy. The CMS is a style guide, and that’s all it is.

Of course, if your publisher wants you to conform to a style guide or in-house style, that’s between you and your publisher to sort out. Those books that use italics for dialogue have been through that process.

Anyway, the person making the statements on this particular forum was in a position of responsibility. It appears that by posting an opinion contrary to his I was in breach of some kind of rule. My tone was supposedly “confrontational and insulting”. I didn’t, at any time, make any statements that implied any criticism of the poster, or that directly insulted him. I simply made statements that contradicted his own opinion. I received a warning, and a threat. Today my posts in that thread have all been removed.

None of us has anything to lose by being open to opinions contrary to our own. Sometimes we may even be wrong – I certainly am sometimes. I’m cool with that. We all learn that way. Or at least, it seems that some of us do, and some of us don’t.

On another forum, yet another discussion about using exclamation marks. They come along quite often, these discussions. It appears that for some people they’re not only unnecessary, but the sign of an amateur.

If you’re anything like me and try to read plenty of fiction, you’ll soon realise that such a view labels some damn fine authors as amateurs.

Particularly poor, apparently, is the use of multiple exclamation marks, or an exclamation mark in conjunction with a question mark, such as “?!”.

And on another forum, in yet another discussion of Dan Brown’s writing, someone commented on his use of italics by asking how many pages you had to turn to find a page without italics in his latest book, The Lost Symbol, italics on the page no doubt being another sign of an amateur.

Away from writing forums, I took a break from my recent science fiction reading and picked up a book that I bought over a year ago but hadn’t yet gotten around to reading, Rape: A Love Story, by Joyce Carol Oates. It tells the tale of a woman who is out with her daughter late one night when she gets attacked, gang-raped and left for dead by a group of young men, while her daughter hides nearby fearing for her life. I found it a gripping read from start to finish. I’d never read anything previously by Oates, though I was familiar with her name.

Rape is not only a gripping read, it’s an interesting write. Oates uses short chapters, and shifts between third person past tense, second person past tense, and second person present tense as she moves between viewpoint characters. Now, I’m not against the use of second person – though I know people who are, maybe you’re one of them – but I’ve often found it difficult to read for more than a handful of pages in the past. I have to confess, I was some way into the book before I even became aware that I was reading second person. The story was that gripping. Even once I became aware, it seemed perfectly natural and smoothly done.

There is very little dialogue, and what dialogue there is is usually short. You have to turn a lot of pages before you find anything resembling a notable conversation going on.

There are places, though, where the dialogue is in italics. No, really, there are. More than a few of them. Did it spoil my read? To be honest, I never noticed them, except for afterwards when I was analysing the style.

Actually, a lot of pages have italics on in one form or another. A scan of the first 50 pages came out at about two thirds of them, I think. Almost on a par with Dan Brown, I’d imagine.

She also uses exclamation marks. No, really, she does. And plenty of them, sometimes as many as five on a page. And wait for this, in a couple of places she uses one in conjunction with a question mark, just like this: “?!”.

Knowing all of this, the book should be a large, steaming pile of doggy doo-dah, shouldn’t it? Well it isn’t. It’s a bloody good read. And a bloody good write. So there.

On at least a couple of occasions this week I’ve found myself responding to posts in writing forums with the advice that the person posting should go back through some of the books he or she had read to see how something is done. I don’t truly understand why this advice needs to be given as often as it is, because it seems blatantly obvious to me that anyone who reads has a wealth of writing examples at their fingertips from which they can learn. They will almost certainly learn that often there is more than one way to achieve something, more than one style that can be used, more than one convention that can be adopted. They will also be able to verify the specific advice they’re given in writing forums. When someone says “Never do X” or “Always do Y” they’ll be able to see whether that advice is inline with published fiction, the stuff real live publishers are putting on the shelves.

It would be easy to imagine, from questions asked, that some of the people trying to learn how to write through using writing forums have never read a book in their lives. I know, I agree with you what you’re thinking, that just can’t be true, can it? But it does sometimes seem like that.

How many times does it need to be said that in order to write well you should read plenty?

Set by Sophie Playle: http://sophieplayleblog.blogspot.com/2009/09/first-line-meme.html

The Rules:

From the biggest bookcase you have, pick out one book whose author’s last name starts with each letter of your last name. If you have no books by an author whose last name starts with a particular letter, go to the next letter. If you have two of the same letter in your last name, get two separate authors, not two books by the same author. Post the first sentence of each book, along with the author and title. Feel free to skip prefaces and such, especially if they’re by a different writer.

Here are mine:

J

Once upon a time and a very good time it was there was a moocow coming down along the road and this moocow that was coming down along the road met a nicens little boy named baby tuckoo…

- James Joyce, A Portrait of the Artist as a Young Man

A

My little brother came to camp  in 1948 (I was already there),  at the height of the war between the brutes and the bitches…

- Martin Amis, House of Meetings

C

The last night I spent in London, I took some girl or other to the movies and, through her mediation, I paid you a little tribute of spermatozoa, Tristessa.

- Angela Carter, The Passion of New Eve

O

After she was gang-raped, kicked and beaten and left to die on the floor of the filthy boathouse at Rocky Point Park.

- Joyce Carol Oates, rape, a love story

B

The barges lay on the darkness of the still canal, their lines softened by the snow heaped in pillows and hummocks on their decks.

- Iain M Banks, Look to Windward

S

A dark-skinned human with four arms walks toward me across the floor of the club, clad only in a belt strung with human skulls.

- Charles Stross, Glasshouse

You have heard of Julio Cortazar, haven’t you? Of course you have, you’re well read (you are, aren’t you?) so you can probably rattle off the title of every story he ever wrote, yes?

Be honest – can you name any?

A couple of years ago a fiendishly tempting display in the local Waterstones begged me to buy a collection of his shorts: Blow-Up and Other Stories. At the same time (and in a familiar  moment of weakness) I also bought Juan Rulfo’s novel Pedro Paramo and that was a thoroughly intriguing read.

So, did you name any? I can name two. Blow-Up and Axolotl. Remember them? I read more than just those two, but right now – miles from home and without the book to refer to – those are the ones that immediately spring to mind. Memorable is the word. Isn’t that what separates good fiction from the not so good? The good stuff is memorable. It might be memorable for any one of a number of reasons, but it’s memorable.

What about the not-so-memorable stories that you’ve read? Can you remember any of those?

Me neither.

The next time you sit down to write a piece of fiction, be it short or long, I want you to staple a piece of paper to your thumb with the word ‘memorable’ on it. When you’ve finished writing, ask yourself why what you’ve written would be memorable to your reader. If you don’t like the answer, do something about it.

I did staple my finger once, when I was 16 and working in an accountant’s office. It didn’t hurt, not on the way in at least, but on the way out was a different story (a memorable one, in fact).

At this point I should mention my son, the baby of the family, who is also now 16, and who received his GCSE results today. Great set of results, my son. Well done. And watch out for staples.

So anyway, Blow-Up and Other Stories, it’s a memorable read. Before I began writing (fiction) five years ago I barely ever read short stories. Now I can’t get enough of them. In fact, over the last few years I’ve become something of a short story reader and have struggled to read novels. That’s had to change this year as I’m making the effort to get up to speed with contemporary science fiction, so I’m gulping down novels as fast as my brain can parse them.

To do that, to read so many novels in such a short space of time, I’ve had to make some sacrifices. I’ve cleared the decks, or almost cleared them, so that I can find the time not only to read more, but to write more. In particular, so that I can write a novel by the end of next year.

The final deck clearing is just taking place. After three and a half years of looking after the Critters Bar writing forum I’m calling it a day. Two kind souls have come forward to share the responsibility, so Critters Bar will continue to provide a warm welcome to aspiring writers. I’d like to thank the members for making it easy for me to run the place for the last three years. After some teething problems in the first couple of months things really settled down and a lot of good work has been done behind the bar doors.

So, it’s goodbye to Critters Bar. Well not quite goodbye, I’m still a member and I’m sure I’ll turn up in there like a bad penny when I need a break from writing the novel, but it’s the end of an era. It’s been fun.

Something I tend to do, now that I have more time and because I’m planning to write science fiction, is read the science and technology sections on the BBC web site. All that information just a mouse click away, it’s fascinating what you come across sometimes.

Today there was an article on how some of the things we consider science fiction today could become science fact tomorrow. Such things as time travel and invisibility. Apparently neither of these is actually impossible, but we don’t have the solutions for them yet. One of the problems with invisibility, for instance, is that you’d need two holes in your invisibility cloak so that you can see out. So, you’d have these two detached eyes wandering around.

In another (unrelated) article it said that the axolotl is on the verge of becoming extinct in the wild. (You don’t think I chose randomly to talk about the axolotl do you?). The article reminded me immediately of the short story by Julio Cortazar. If you haven’t already read it, then I think you should. And Blow-Up. In fact, you could do far worse than buying the whole collection, Blow-Up and Other Stories.

But anyway, the axolotl article said that recent surveys suggested that there are less than 1200 of them left in the wild. That’s not a lot, is it. It also said that one of these surveys found just a single axolotl in the particular region under study. Blimey. Just one!

And that got me thinking. Could the two stories be in any way related? Don’t laugh. I’m serious. Could it be that the axolotl has developed invisibility cloak technology? Because that first article was very clear. It said you should be very careful about using the word ‘impossible’. I can’t help wondering whether that survey, which was looking for axolotl, missed the fact that they were being watched by thousand of pairs of detached axolotl eyes.

I know. It sounds daft, doesn’t it, but you know, we often see what we expect to see, don’t we. It’s only on closer inspection we sometimes find that what we thought we saw wasn’t there at all. Did the survey look for axolotl eyes? No. It looked for whole axolotl. I’m sure of it.

But there you go. My point is not that we sometime see what we expect to see. My point is that good fiction is memorable. It is, isn’t it. You know that and I know that. So don’t forget it. Whatever it is that you’re in the process of writing, or are about to write, read it back afterwards and ask yourself: why is this memorable?

Oh. And just in case: you can remove the staple from your thumb now.

Many thanks to the good folks over at The Pygmy Giant for taking Hemingway’s Ashtray, a fun little piece written as part of the story-a-day blast in Critters Bar.

http://thepygmygiant.wordpress.com/2009/08/10/hemingways-ashtray/

I’ve often heard people say that if you’re a writer you should write every day. If you don’t write every day, you can’t be serious. Set yourself a daily target and make sure you hit it. If you don’t hit it, you can’t be serious.

Do you write every day? If so, do you set yourself daily targets? If so, do you meet them? If not, how do you feel when that happens?

I ask because I meet up with a bunch of local writers every couple of weeks at the Goldfish Bowl writing group, and recently a local writer was invited along to talk to us. It was a good evening and I enjoyed listening to him talk about his writing and how he approaches it.

Of course, not everyone approaches writing in the same way. Different writers will have different approaches. The end result is the important thing and I doubt that you can tell what process the writer has gone through by looking at the final product, the published novel. I have a couple of books in which writers talk about their approaches. I find it interesting. But each of us has to find what works best for us, and what works for you might not work well for me.

I don’t know what works best for me yet because I’m just setting out to write my first novel. Maybe the process I go through will change as I progress, evolve until I find something I’m comfortable with.

One of the points the local author made I thought was really helpful. He said that he doesn’t have a daily target. He has a weekly target. He prefers a weekly target because if he has a daily target and misses it, it’s frustrating, whereas with a weekly target it doesn’t matter if he misses a day and he can always catch up.

It sounds simple, and it is. And I can’t help wondering how many writers out there are feeling frustrated because they’re setting themselves daily targets and failing to meet them.

Maybe you’re one of those frustrated writers yourself.

I like that simple idea. When I come to start cranking out the words on my own novel, which won’t be too long now, I’ll be working to a weekly target, not a daily one.

As it happens, the local author has posted a copy of his writing schedule on the internet:

http://www.snowbooks.com/Emson_schedule.html

You can see how he did as he wrote his novel, along with some notes that he added.

Are you a frustrated writer?