The First Line Series: 1 - The Hook

When it comes to the first line of a book, there seem to be a few different theories floating around. Each one deserves it's time in the spotlight so I will discuss these theories and their pros and cons over the next few blog posts. The first discusses that old adage of 'hook your reader' and 'make that first line a killer'.

The Fish Hook in the Cheek
This is the idea that a first line should grab the reader like the titular fish hook. It should entirely prevent the reader from looking away, putting down the book and wandering out of the bookstore. It should, in fact, drag the reader to the counter where he or she will slam down their hard-earned cash, thank the cashier and hurry home, all without having looked up from the page. This theory states that you, the writer, should spend hours painstakingly crafting that first sentence until it jumps off the page and gives you a Roger Rabbit-esque kiss.

First Lines that Do It Right: 
Rebecca - 'Last night I dreamt I went to Manderley again.'
Mrs Dalloway - 'Mrs Dalloway said she would buy the flowers herself.'
1984 - 'It was a bright cold day in April and the clocks were striking thirteen.'

There is a commonality between these lines. They each introduce something new to the reader and leave them with questions, be it a place, character or event. If you only had these lines, what questions would you come up with? What the hell is Manderley? Why is this person dreaming about it? Again?? Who is Mrs Dalloway? Why is the buying flowers? Why is she specifically buying them herself? How is a clock striking thirteen? What kind of place has 13-hour clocks?

With your first line, try to think of what a reader, if given just your sentence, would question. Does it make you want to read on or does it leave you cold? Then give it to a reader, a friend, relative, online forum, anyone. All feedback is good feedback.

The downside of new writers trying to make that first line sucker punch a reader is that one can spend so much time making those first ten words perfect, that the other 80,000 do not live up to the hype. I believe a novel should be the same standard throughout. I've read so many that start off so well, the first three chapters are incredible but after that the writing flounders, the plot turns sluggish and I leave the characters feeling disappointed.

This happens because so many new writers concentrate on the first line or first three chapters because that is what is sent to an agent or publisher and that small section of the whole is what 'sells' the book. If you have an amazing first line, great, good for you, but make sure the rest of your work is of the same standard and has received the same amount of attention from you. Yes it will take a while, yes it will be difficult, but that is what writing a book is all about. How do you do this? You edit. You edit like your life depended on it. You cut. You re-write. You bang your head on your desk until that first line is just a taster, not the pinnacle, of wrting within. Stop concentrating on selling your book and instead concentrate on writing it.

So Many New Ideas! Ahh My Brain!!

I'm now coming to the end of my WIP, the finish line at the end of the tunnel is in sight (yes, I mixed my metaphors, what are you going to do about it?) and what invariably happens at this stage of a project is my mind gets flooded with all these new shiny novel or short story ideas. This is very annoying. It's distracting from the most important part of the book, the denouement, the climax of climaxes, the bit where all the disparate little threads of thought are wound together into a beautiful macrame teddy bear which the reader can hug to hold onto the magic of the story. But then the other ideas come and they stay your hand from tying those knots and they dance and sing and frolic before you, tempting you away from your work.

Do not go! Avoid temptation! Sit back down and finish that book you've been writing for what feels like 63,000 years. Are you sat back down? Good. So what can we do about those pesky ideas? Listen closely and I shall tell you.

There are three options.

1. You can be tempted away, start a new writing project with this new, shiny, best idea EVA and have the same thing happen 5k from the end. Your call.

2. You can ignore those flashy lights and bells and whistles, you can put your ear muffs on and hunker down under a blanket until they go away. But they won't go away. Do you know why? Because they're inside your head!

3. You can catch the little gits and force them onto a piece of paper. Tether them to the fibres of dead tree or the cyber page. Write down everything you know about them, everything that comes into your head and do it quickly. Then put that page or notebook in a drawer and lock them away until the last word is written on your current project. When you have done that, you can let them out, pick the best one and start the process all over again.

What will you do? I'll give you a hint - 1 & 2 are the wrong answer.

Happy holidays!

Now Closed to Submissions

Hello all you lovely folks of the Internet. Since opening my cyber doors I have been inundated with submissions. I've tried hard to keep on top of things but alas, I am being buried beneath the slush pile. So, to rectify this situation, catch up on my backlog, and allow myself a few days of Christmas holiday, I am now closed to submissions until the New Year.

I will attempt to post my pearls of wordy wisdom on a semi-regular basis but will not be accepting any new editing projects for the time being.

NaNoWriMo 1: Characterisation

This is the first in a series I'll be writing during NaNoWriMo. To survive the most horrible month in the publishing world, there are certain rules that one can follow to make that 50k go a little easier. The first one is the importance of solid characterisation so I'm going to outline some methods for creating well-rounded, realistic, and memorable characters.

The 5-Way Plan

This is when you take a sheet of paper and write down absolutely everything about the character. Writing classes often do a stripped down version of this as a writing exercise. Write down 5 aspects of the character's physical appearance, the more detailed the better, i.e. 5ft 1 instead of 'short'. Then 5 things about their background (where they work, where they were born etc.). Then 5 members of their family/friends/contacts. Then 5 personality traits. 5 habits or quirks. This is the most time consuming method but will give you a solid idea of how your characters will act and react to situations.

The Mimic Plan

I wouldn't necessarily recommend this but if it is done well, it can be very effective for the reader. If you're a more visual writer who uses cues from films or other works to generate ideas, then this may be for you. So, you're writing a fantasy book, you have a hardened woodsman/warrior/ranger who you see as an Aragorn type. That's fine but don't stop there. Use the fundamentals of Aragorn but not the specifics. Write down how your character is different from Aragorn, physically and emotionally. Then show it to a friend and if that friend says 'Oh that's Aragorn without the beard' then you may have to have a rethink. The advantage of this is that it can be a very quick way to form a rounded character and NaNoWriMo is all about speed.

The Improvisation Plan

This is the way I tend to work on a project and depending on the type of writer you are, this is even quicker than the previous. I tend to think of a name first and build from there as I write then go back and alter if needed. If you end up with a clear idea in your mind then it can extremely easy to write a believable character but if you don't, then you can end up with inconsistencies. When I write I let my characters lead me, it's more organic and I let them evolve as any real person would given the experiences so I don't like having a detailed blueprint of a person written down, as in the 5-Way Plan. When I write I feel like an explorer so I like to discover things about my characters as a reader would. If I have a long planning document then it feels like the discoveries have already been made and I lose interest. So this method can be the most fun to write but is the most risky.

For a task like NaNoWriMo the biggest thing you need to do that will save you the most time is to be decisive. I know writers who second guess their decisions or don't make them so the writing itself is stalled. NaNoWriMo is a crazy undertaking for anyone and do bear in mind that 50k is very very very short to be called a novel, it's more of a novella, if you really want to write a novel in one month, aim for 80k. 

How Characters Can Drive Your Plot

Whether you are one of those writers that lets the characters meander through the story while you try desperately to keep up with all the crap they do, or one of those writers who has their protagonist on baby-reins, the nature of your characters is what drives your story. Without them, your story would be a deserted city or one populated with mannequins. Generally (yes, I'm generalising, what are going to do about it?), a story falls into 3 categories -

1 - The Plot-Driven Narrative
This is when your characters are simply the vehicle for the plot and story to be told, they are slotted into their roles and the story itself is more important than the person telling or experiencing it. Characters are often not that well established or drawn and this technique is usually used in fast-paced thrillers and their ilk.

2 - The Character-Driven Narrative
This one is the opposite of 1. This is when you have these amazing characters that have subtle nuances and personality quirks that make them real and believable. The plot is formed from their lives, they take the writer on a merry dance and the writer feels privileged to be allowed to participate. The downside of this is that plot and pacing can suffer. You can get so caught up in internal monologuing when your MC is tying his shoes that the reader can give up.

3 - The Goldilocks Narrative
You guessed it, this is when you get the balance between 1 and 2 just right. This is when the characters feel real, the plot is tight and interesting, and the narrative keeps pace with the reader. This is where the characters can lead and make their own decisions in the small scale, instead of the large. Where those little details of which brand of gum the MC chooses makes the story believable without detracting from the plot.

If you read through your WIP and go three pages without an interesting incident, you are probably suffering from number 2. If you go three pages without any character reflextion or description, you've no doubt got a case of number 1. Try to find the balance. If an interesting incident happens, one that is important to the character (accident/emergency/birth/marriage/death/odd conversation/fired from job etc.) then give a paragraph or two of description about how this affects your character, how this event has changed things for them, if at all, how their perceptions of person/job/life has altered. This will reinforce your characters and give them more than one dimension while keeping the plot moving.

How to Write a Better Book in 5 Easy Steps

Ok so these might not be the traditional definition of 'easy' and the 'better' is subjective but hey ho, let's see what they are anyway! I've read a lot of manuscripts from aspiring authors and, with few exceptions, the same few little niggles crop up time and again. I've even seen these pet peeves in published novels, for example, Twilight is littered with them. I do believe it should be renamed 'The How-To Guide for Writing a Crap Novel'. I am in-between massive edits at the moment so I have a spare few minutes to cyber-scribble my thoughts on this subject.

I love writing, I've been doing it since I was a child and have barely stopped to take a breath. For the past, probably 20 years, I've been reading 'how to write' books, blogs, magazines, as well as taking writing classes, novel critiquing classes, etc. etc. All that aside, I firmly believe the best way to learn about how to write is to just do it, to forget the rules and get that wordbaby onto paper. The 5 Easy Steps come in after you've done that. After you've had a celebratory jump up and down, tweeted about it, called your mum, and had one or six stiff drinks, the hard work comes in. So here it is -

1. READ YOUR BOOK! I can't stress this enough, all the exclamation points in the world couldn't stress this enough. I know it's like trudging through estuary mud but you have to do it, you just have to, don't argue. Set aside the red pen, don't look for mistakes, don't correct typos, don't do anything like that, just read it. Also set aside all prior knowledge of this story. Read it like a real person would. Read it to enjoy it. You may have created a spectacular fantasy world full of woamdsnursxxx11's and gold-plated snafflybeuftters but if you are using a bunch of invented words and concepts, make sure you explain them enough. If on your read through you come across things you wouldn't understand without the 400-page planning document then make a note of it and change it later.
2. Do a search for how many times you have used the following phrases - 'he/she said [followed by adverb]', 'he/she sighed', 'he/she curled her lip', 'his/her [hair, eyes, whatever] was the colour of'. If, in a 80k manuscript it's more than a handful, seriously consider changing them. They are common, overused tropes that deserve a spot in the Pit. In dialogue, however, these are okay but in the body of the text, they should be avoided and flagged up with neon lights and claxons as Cliche. There are plenty of ways to say 'she curled her lip in a smile and sighed as he said seductively, 'your eyes are the colour of the deepest ocean'. Bleugh. So find another way of saying it and save us all from the horror of having to read lines like that. 
3. Adverbs. I think I'm going to try to get my hatred of adverbs into every blog post, so far so good. Delete them. Just hit delete, the world and your writing will be better for it. They are abhorrent and should not be tolerated except under very specific circumstances. They are lazy writing. It's just easy to say 'he laughed loudly and irritated those around him' than 'his booming laugh irritated those around him'. The second sentence gives a lot more information than the first and has irradicated the adverb. [Disclaimer - I know I use adverbs in this blog but blogging is more like dialogue than prose. Adverbs are fine in dialogue. I don't use adverbs in my writing unless I have no other option].
4. Long sentences. I've come across this issue a lot recently. I've read sentences comprised of 60+ words, a handful of conjunctions, clauses, and a meandering subject that just gets lost. This ties into the first point, read your book, that's what you want other people to do so make sure they can get through a sentence and keep the meaning intact. When you read back and feel the natural pause (usually after the first conjunction) just put a full stop and reword the rest. I promise you this will make your narrative much easier to read. 
5. Cliches and obvious descriptions. This is also, I suppose, about similes and metaphors. I'm predominantly a metaphor person but a well-placed and well-written simile can be just as effective. Go through your manuscript and make a note of how many similes you use. How many are to describe a character (his eyes were like emeralds, her blonde hair shone like the sun, his legs were thick like tree trunks, etc.)? If it's a lot, and if you have used any of those, change them. There is very little worse in a novel  than reading a cliched description of a character or setting. Inject a little originality, imagination, and the unexpected into your descriptions. Use metaphors instead of similes, they are more powerful. Don't always go with the first description that comes to mind. If, for example, your instinct is to say 'he was eating his cake like a pig' to describe a messy eater, then ignore your instinct and try to think of another way to say the same thing, 'the cake disappeared into his slobbering maw, one packed handful after another'. Don't be afraid to use a few extra words to get the point across. 

So those are my Top 5 tips for better writing but I think the most important is number 1. You have to put yourself in the mindset of a reader picking this up in a bookshop (if, of course, that is your ambition). Think about when you go to a bookshop, do you go for really hefty 800 page books or slim 2-300 page volumes? If the latter then don't write a 200k word novel. Think about the book you would want to read, write it, then read it. You will find a million mistakes but once they are all corrected you will have something you can be very proud of.

Rant on Book Lists

<rant>

So the World Book Night Top 100 is out. It’s a great list but doesn’t hold many surprises. It’s littered with, and topped by, the classics; To Kill a Mockingbird, Pride and Prejudice, Jane Eyre, Wuthering Heights (my favourite book of all time, ever. Really. Ever), Catch-22, The Great Gatsby, along with a bucketful of Booker winners and nominees which is a great thing in itself (encourages more people to read the classics, etc.) but I’d love to see a list where the classics could be excluded and only books published in the last, say, 20 years would be eligible. Then we might see some hidden gems emerge. Not to say there aren’t a few excellent, contemporary and less super-famous books on the list (The Book Thief, Wolf Hall, The Graveyard Book) but it is predominantly made up of classics and Booker/other prize nominees (excluding of course, Harry Potter).

There is another list of the 20 Most Iconic Book Covers; this includes all the same classics and more listed in the WBN 100. The problem I have with lists like this is that they are so predictable. Where is the fun in seeing a list of 100 or so books or covers when around 40-60% of it is a given?  There are some amazing books from the last 10-20 years that I believe everyone should read and are always excluded from these lists for various reasons (Travels in the Scriptorium, Transition, The Night Watch series, The Song of Ice and Fire series, Christie Malry’s Own Double Entry etc. etc. ad infinitum). This could be because they are not as well-known as those Richard & Judy darlings or even because SFF books/TV shows/films never get the same level of recognition as mainstream equivalents, but that’s a different blog post.

I do have a bit of a wasp in my keyboard about this issue. I look on these lists thinking that there may be a new, as-yet-undiscovered-by-me, awesome read but always come away disappointed. I’ve read the classics, I’ve either read or decided not to read the Booker nominees (and yes, I know that a lot of people haven’t read either) but there is nothing on the WBN list that I’ve not heard of and that either makes me spectacularly well-read or the list-makers, public vote or judging body, very predictable. 

</rant and breathe>