This is chapter three of the crime thriller ‘Blood Read (Publish And Be Dead)’, which is officially ‘coming soon’. Chapter one is here and chapter two is here. Needless to say, you should read those chapters first.

Blood Read (Publish And Be Dead)

Poisoned Words

Inveterate book blogger Charlotte MacInnes ran a spell check through her latest review. She proofed it by reading right to left, left to right, upside down, roundabout and backwards, determined to eliminate all possibility of typos. She hated small mistakes and castigated authors and publishers alike for letting them slip through. How dare they send her a book that wasn’t perfect? How could they be so slipshod?

She had not yet dressed for the day though her husband had set out for the office three hours before. He toiled in the offices of a real estate firm in the centre of Pittsburgh. He didn’t earn much, which was one of the great disappointments of her life, but it was enough that she didn’t have to work herself. Which left her free to read.

Her eleven-year-old daughter was home sick from school and Charlotte had spent most of the morning making breakfast and fussing over her child. At last she had found time to update her website. Then she could get down to the real business of the day: reading a book, a whole book, immersing herself in the experience and the fantasy. And the love.

Though she hadn’t yet chosen what to read. A large pile of hardbacks stood stacked against the wall near her desk. An even larger stack of paperbacks had been moved out to the garage. She had long ago refused to accept ebooks. Hard copy only. The books brought in a steady stream of revenue off eBay, even if they didn’t all merit a review.

Once she was certain there were no errors in her article – no missing words or misplaced letters (though she was, it must be said, less of a perfectionist when it came to having ideas of her own) she pressed ‘publish’ and turned her attention to the comments section. Time for pruning. There were always authors hitting back at her reviews. Usually she let her army of commenters deal with the dissenters, but occasionally a disgruntled writer would whinge too much or overstep the mark and she’d stamp them like a bug with her delete button.

[continue reading…]

Any writer faces a fundamental choice – should you write what people are already buying, what the market knows and understands? Or should you write what inspires you, tell a story that grips you and which comes from deep within, ignoring all trends and even reader expectations?

In one camp, many writers (and editors, publishers, agents etc) insist that a pro writes for the market and that means writing in a genre, meeting the expectations (with a twist, of course) – but always understanding who your readers will be and why they buy books. Give them what they want.

In the other camp, many say that is a road to failure – because your work will never resonate with authenticity unless you ignore all the demands of the market and instead write the story from deep inside, the story that must get out, the one that springs from your subconscious demanding to be told, no matter what.

There are confident, convincing arguments on both sides. And a lot of ink has been spilled debating the subject.

My advice is simple, and can be applied to almost any endeavour or circumstance: when presented with two extremes, walk a middle path.

 

Photo: 'Path?' by greenzowie via Flickr and Creative Commons

Another Wimbledon tradition has played itself out today – the plucky British underdog, home crowd favourite – tries hard against overwhelming odds and loses valiantly. Marcus Willis, ranked 772 in the world, never had a hope against the mighty Roger Federer on Centre Court – or any court for that matter. But he gave his all, and everyone is proud of him. Certainly, a lot of people were glued to their TV sets to watch, even though there was no chance of an upset. (The court itself was full – but Centre Court at Wimbie is always full – for a singles match at least).

The moral of the tale though – if you’re creating a hero for a story, make sure they give their all, smile even when defeated, play (or struggle, or fight) with courage and tenacity and get back up every time they are knocked down. That way, the fans will keep watching, and keep reading.

The Wimbledon tennis tournament has begun once more, with all of its traditions and drama.

One of those traditions is for the players to wear white. It makes the place look classy, for sure. But all too often it’s hard to tell, at a glance, while watching the TV coverage and doing half a dozen other things at the same time, which player is which.

Storytellers face a similar dilemma. If readers come back to a novel and open up to where they left off, start reading and have trouble remembering who is who and what they were doing, then you risk losing them.

Characters need to be distinctive – without being grotesque caricatures. They need a voice of their own, and something about their appearance which sets them apart.

Sci-fi writer Michael Morcock calls this a ‘tag.’ It amounts to giving a character a scar, or a limp, or a hat, or a parrot on their shoulder, along with a wooden leg. Okay, that worked once upon a time, but might be overkill, depending on the kind of story you’re telling.

Ideally, it should be something that ties in with the plot – think Harry Potter’s scar, which marks him out to the magical community, links him to the antagonist (literally) and which hurts at times of danger.

Ron has his red hair, Dumbledore his beard, Hagrid his huge size, Malfoy his white hair, and so on.

By giving major characters a distinctive ‘tag’ to remind the reader who they are and what they look like, you have an easy way to keep them engaged, informed, and able to follow who is who and what is going on.

Perhaps the Wimbledon organisers should relax their rules a little, and allow a splash of colour here and there, for the sake of the spectators. Or would that be asking too much?

If you’re creating a story from scratch there are hundreds of places to start. These are a few jumping off points:

• A hero – what does he want? What does she need? What’s bugging him? What’s her backstory and how is it holding her back?
• A villain – what is their dastardly plan?
• A victim – who needs to be rescued, and what kind of danger are they in?
• A theme – this is a big one. What is your story really all about? If you know that, then you can make the other choices to match.
• A world – where is the story set? On our world? A fantasy or sci-fi world? Or somewhere else entirely – a world no one else has ever thought of?
• A location – similar to the above, but more focused. Is this a story set on a Scottish island? Or in Peru? Those choices will shape everything else.
• A setting – which may sound similar to location, but actually is wider. For example, the setting could be a hospital, a firm of lawyers, a military base, a police station, an office, a home, a prison, a space station.
• A  genre – are you writing a murder mystery or a romance? A thriller or a hard-boiled sci-fi noir?
• An inciting incident – something happens that sparks a story into life, creating problems that must be resolved.
• A climax – it’s always useful to know where the story is heading. Do you have a vision for a great finale? The rest of the story can be structured to rise to his ending.
• A transformation – is there something your hero must learn? A change they must make? Or something about their own nature which they must realise and either cast it off or embrace fully?
• A character flaw that you want to investigate – think Scrooge in A Christmas Carol. (This is very closely related to theme).
• A single compelling scene – which can act as the fulcrum around which the rest of the story unfolds.
•  A clash of ideas – create characters and incidents which dramatise the conflict.
• A crucible – in any story, there has be something holding all the major players together so they can’t simply walk away from the conflict. The crucible could include many of the items above – for example the setting if they are in business together, or all in prison together. Or they could be on a submarine. Or related. Or in love.
•  A title – this can work, but you have a long way to go! Sometimes, though, a perfect or even simply a very stark and direct title can be the launchpad for the all the other story ideas: Jaws, Star Wars, Jurassic Park, The Time Machine, The War of the Worlds.
• A mood – beware of this one. You might spend a lot of time going around in circles. Or not creating compelling incidents or characters. A story is about something happening.
• A discovery – this is related to the inciting incident, of course, but doesn’t have to come right at the start.

That should be enough to be going on with. Though there are plenty more options out there. What works for you?

 

Photo: 'Every Journey Begins with a. . .New Attitude' by Heidi via Flickr and Creative Commons

This is chapter two of the crime thriller ‘Blood Read (Publish And Be Dead)’, which is officially ‘coming soon’. Chapter one is here. Needless to say, you should read that chapter first.

Blood Read (Publish and Be Dead)

Chapter Two: The Worst Day

There had been a period of his life (nine months reduced to five for good behaviour) when Tom Capgras was blessed with too much time on his hands. He spent most of it pondering a question posed by a cellmate: is there one day you could pinpoint, one that stands alone as the single worst day of your life?

The day the police raided the newsroom, stomping across the editorial floor as if it were a brothel with a side-line selling methamphetamine and fully loaded semi-automatics, sweeping protesting journalists out of their way, demanding access to locked rooms and desks, ripping through filing cabinets, taking the hard disk out of his computer, seizing his laptop and phone and finally leading Capgras away in handcuffs while the editor hurled abuse at them – that, at the time, was the worst day ever, without doubt.

Tom even announced it as such to anyone who would listen once Special Branch, or whatever they were calling themselves, had released him and he sat mulling it over, staring into a pint of warm beer in the Cloak and Dagger public house. “That was the worst day of my life,” he’d said, as if to make it official, sure that he was right. What, after all, could top the humiliation, the outrage, the frustration? Or the knowledge that he’d brought the power of the secret services down on his colleagues and on his newspaper?

But it did get worse. The day they found him guilty of trading in state secrets – that was worse. And the day a week later, when they sentenced him to nine months in prison, that was worse still.

The first day of the sentence was the worst yet. Though the second topped it. And the third. And on it went. [continue reading…]

Sometimes people make stupid decisions. Sometimes whole nations take stupid decisions. It doesn’t make them bad people, necessarily. Look deeper and you may find that they were led astray, and the real blame, if that’s even the right word, rests with those who spread lies and deceit. Or just gossip and rumour. Even those folk may not really have known what they were doing and should be treated with compassion.

But folk who spread hatred, intolerance and bigotry to further their own ends and accumulate wealth and power? I’m not sure they should be so easily forgiven.

A German newspaper today turned a deeply unsettling and at times bitter, angry and aggressive debate around the UK’s future in Europe completely on it head. How? By being genuinely and disarmingly funny, and in the process shattering one of the main stereotypes or preconceptions the insular British have of the Germans – that they have no sense of humour.

Bild, Germany’s top selling tabloid, appealed to the people of Britain to stay in the EU. If it we did, it promised, then it would finally (finally!) acknowledge that Geoff Hurst’s winning goal in the 1966 World Cup final really did cross the line. The paper also made a solemn promise that next time England and Germany meet on the soccer pitch and it goes to a penalty shoot-out, then they would play without a goalkeeper. Presumably they are confident that they would still win – and they might have a point.

Bild also suggested that Germans would stop using sun-cream, in solidarity with the sunburnt Brits, and would even allow us to use the deck-chairs occasionally.

The paper also offered an EU guideline that bans froth on beer if Britain votes to remain.

Why has it taken so long for someone to inject humour into the debate?

Especially when it such a powerful weapon.

But the thing is, they may think it’s only a joke but we have long memories and we’ll hold them to their promises. No goalkeeper next time, no froth on the beer, and no towels on the deckchairs. You gave your word.

It is a common trope in science fiction, and the wider culture, that if you had a time machine, you could go back into the past and change something important. Killing Hitler, for example. This is a common idea and understandable: think of all the deaths that could be avoided if you were willing to take one life. Kill one evil man and save millions of innocents. (This trope has been on my mind, perhaps because of certain recent events which may have been influenced by this concept).

However, there is another trope in science fiction which says if you travel into the past and change something, then you create a new timeline and a new universe. It is linked to quantum mechanics and the many worlds theory first put forward by Hugh Everett.

However, the many worlds theory holds a paradox of its own. Because if the multiverse is infinite then all possible things exist, including all possible versions of the planet Earth and all possible timelines. So a universe where you travel back in time and kill Hitler already exists. There’s no need to actually do it.

Unless, of course, we are living in the universe where you travel back in time and kill Hitler – in which case, if you don’t do it, then you are messing with history and screwing up the timeline.

All I can say is – I’m glad it’s not me faced with that dilemma. You’re on your own. And best of luck with the whole time machine thing. Try Kickstarter. I’m sure you’ll get funding.

Photo: Forgotten by Rooners Toy Photography via Flickr and Creative Commons.