Hopes tumbling like broken teeth as he began to speak.
*Originally published by www.the-phone-book.com (now archived)
*Originally published by www.the-phone-book.com (now archived)
Here’s another list of recent reads that I’ve enjoyed. Not all perfect but some come pretty close. Enjoy.
The Scent of Death by Andrew Taylor
The View on the Way Down by Rebecca Waite
Instructions for a Heatwave by Maggie O’Farrell
As Far As You Can Go by Lesley Glaister
The Light Between Oceans by M L Stedman
Ten Things I’ve Learnt About Love by Sarah Butler
The Silent Wife by A.S.A. Harrison
Apple Tree Yard by Louise Doughty
Norwegian by Night by Derek B Miller
The Burning Air by Erin Kelly
How do you decide which form is the best vehicle for a story idea? Sometimes it seems obvious, the subject matter cries out for the length and complexity of a novel, or it’s a sharp, closely focused snap-shot suited to short fiction. Other times something that originates as an idea for one form ends up, through happenstance, to see life in another.
I’ve had experience of writing a book and then adapting it for TV (Blue Murder) and of taking a TV script of mine and reworking it as a novel (Hit and Run). One of my TV pitches became a novel (Witness) and has since been optioned for TV though has not as yet got any further. Another TV treatment was transformed into a short story for radio (Boom).
I enjoy working in different media. In my previous incarnation as a community artist I worked in a multidisciplinary company and relished the interplay of ideas and the development of projects involving visual and environmental arts, film, music, drama and creative writing.
My latest venture is a collaboration with my partner Tim, who is a visual artist. He has reworked my short story DOA (originally published by The Do-Not Press in the anthology Crime in the City edited by Martin Edwards) into a graphic short. My role in the process has been to pare back the story, originally around 1200 words, to its absolute essentials, and comment as a first reader on the images that give the story a new identity.
It’s an experiment and I expect it will appeal to a quite different readership from that for my full length novels. All I can say is the drawings are brilliant. Honest. And yes, I’m biased. You can see it here and make your own mind up http://tinyurl.com/pkfjyxk
The great writer Elmore Leonard died recently and many people passed on his 10 rules for good writing, as follows:
My most important rule is one that sums up the 10. If it sounds like writing, I rewrite it.
Make sense to you? I think there is a lot of good advice in there but also that rules are only worth keeping if they work for you and for the book you are writing. Here are my gut responses/thoughts to these rules.
What does make sense in all this is that these are the techniques that worked for Leonard, whose novels are a joy to read and who has a very specific voice. But pick another writer and I think their own rules would differ depending on the style of their prose and the way they like to tell their stories.
Another batch of recommended reads. Lots of variety, too. In this list there’s a brutal and blackly funny Western, a science fiction mystery novel, a hilarious yet moving take on modern American life as well as some excellent contemporary crime fiction. Happy reading.
After The Fall by Charity Norman
The Last Policeman by Ben H. Winters
Nina Todd Has Gone by Lesley Glaister
Everyone Lies by A.D. Garrett
The Sisters Brothers by Patrick deWitt
May We Be Forgiven by A.M. Homes
The Detective’s Daughter by Lesley Thompson
Phantom by Jo Nesbo
*Originally published by www.the-phone-book.com (now archived)
I began a new book recently. Although I have been busy for some weeks creating characters and their stories, developing the ideas for the murder case, and researching on topics I needed to know more about, for me a book isn’t started until I write those first lines. That’s the ‘proper’ work of writing and no matter how much plotting and planning I might have done in advance (and that varies from book to book) it is in the process of writing that everything is given life and form and new ideas often emerge.
The finishing point is not quite so clear cut. I think there are two of those. The first is when I scrawl the last sentence, put the closing full stop. And the second is when after typing up, editing as I go, polishing and amending in the light of feedback from my writers group and doing a final read through I have a whole book, ready to send off my agent and editor. Of course there will be further work to do – changes suggested by editor or agent, copy edits to agree, proofs to be checked, cover images to consider but in my mind the novel already exists, fully formed. And what comes after, crucial though it is (and it is!) I see as part of the production and publishing process not the creative process.