Plotting and planning the novel

Phil: No one tells you when you start writing a book that it’s all going descend into the sort of project management hell that you thought you’d escaped from at work. Surely the process involves our author hero sitting down before a freshly opened notebook, licking the end of the pen and starting to write?

Nope. It seems that everyone is planning these days. There’s this interesting post over at Novelicious.com for example. Or perhaps you feel inspired by seeing how Emylia Hall works out her next novel.

Writing a novel it seems, should be approached as a “project” as much as an artistic endeavor. That’s certainly what Candice and I felt as we sat in the sunshine outside a Stratford-upon-Avon pub a few weeks ago. We knew the story we wanted to tell. We know our characters. We just weren’t happy with the structure.

Since we’ve both worked on proper work projects and have some clue about how all this works, the concept of book as project isn’t alien to us. Maybe if we’d been the sort of arty-farty floaty types who are supposed to do this sort of thing we’d not think this way, but we aren’t, so we do. In fact we both said the phrase, “We need a whiteboard” at the same time.

If you work in an office this sort of kit is readily available but not many have it at home. You can do just as well with Post-It notes and a couple of days later, that’s what we did. I summarised each chapter while Candice wrote notes on each bit of sticky paper. The glass walls of the conservatory were soon covered with our story in yellow paper form.

All this enabled us to track the plot strands. There is a fairly important plot element that appears in the first few pages and then not for about half the book. That’s fixable.

Likewise, the relationship between our two main characters  needs an extra turning point and we are looking where this should take place. As it happens, we’ll be using some plot set-up that used to be clogging up the beginning of the manuscript and is now to be dragged through the book being hinted at along the way and becoming the resolution to a mystery the reader will hopefully be puzzling over as we go.

What we had done is expose ourselves to ”the big picture” instead of concentrating on details on the page. By juggling a few Post-Its we have spotted holes in the plot and explored better sequences for some scenes.

Is this an unromantic way of working?

Undoubtedly. If you are writing just for fun then forget whiteboards and spreadsheets. Just start to scribble and enjoy the process. We though, see ourselves as (one day) commercial authors and that’s going to require a different approach. This starts with doing the absolute best we can with the story. After that we’ll work hard on the marketing of our “product”. The payoff will hopefully be that people buy the story and thoroughly enjoy it. A smile on a face, or a good review is our aim.

Basically, what we’ve found is that succesful writers are like swans. On the surface it all looks so easy. Under the water, there’s all sort of stuff going on that you, the reader, don’t need to see.

I don’t know what a gerund is. And I don’t care.

A gerund is a noun made from a verb by adding “-ing”.

Phil: A new test has been introduced this week for children. It examines the more ‘technical’ aspects of English – such as grammar, punctuation and spelling and is assessed via an externally marked test.

According to the Department for Education, the introduction of this new test reflects the Government’s beliefs that children should have mastered these important aspects of English by the time they leave primary school, and that appropriate recognition should be given to good use of English throughout their schooling.

Secretary of State for Education, Michael Gove is frothing with excitement at this, but then he believes that Queen Victoria is still on the throne and that geography lessons need to remind everyone that the most countries on the globe should be coloured in pink.

Several arty types like Michael Rosen think he is wrong.

I think I’m inclined to agree with them. Most of my work involves writing, the pinnacle of my education career was an O Level grade B in English and yet I still only managed to score 5/10 in the BBC Grammar Quiz.

Does knowing the full technical aspect of the language make it easier to write clearly? I suspect not. The title of this post involves starting a sentence with a conjunction - a crime that would see my work marked with a big red circle and the words, “See me” appended to the bottom in teachers sternest handwriting.  Did you understand it? Almost certainly.

This isn’t to say that I feel you can completely throw out the rule book. I still get annoyed when sub-editing letters were the writer uses a lower-case “i” when they should use “I” or doesn’t understand that commas and apostrophes are not the same thing. Mostly I’m angry because the writers come from an era when teaching involved the same type of tests that are now being introduced. My suspicion is that they are the same people bashing youngsters for not being able to write.

Language should not get in the way of reading so I’d argue that the subject, or story, is more important than the correct technical English. Let’s encourage children to read widely and fire their creativity thinking. The best-selling authors out there aren’t known for the greatest quality writing but they grab the reader with the story which is a far more impressive skill.

How many people finish a book and say, “Well, the story was dull, the characters one-dimensional but the author really knows how to work a semi-colon.” ?

More to the point, IF we must drill the full set of technical rules into children, please can we lock all the people who claim to care passionately about the subject in a room and only start testing when they have all agreed on all the rules. That should keep them out of our hair for a while!

The Dan Brown effect

Candice: I read a very interesting (and amusing) interview in the Sunday Times this week with Dan Brown, author of the Da Vinci Code.  Dan has been a few things in his life, before becoming a block buster writer, failed musician is one.  Apparently you can find his tunes on You tube…

Anyway, the article is written as a pastiche on Dan’s style, all cliff hangers and plot twists.  I think the writer is taking the P.I.S.S. some what, as we all know the writing style of these books leaves some things to be desired.  (A bit like Fifty shades, perhaps?)  But us masses just love them.

I remember reading the Da Vinci code first, and then working my way through Deception Point, Angels and Demons and Digital Fortress in quick succession, whilst on holiday in Sorrento seven years ago.  They don’t explain in this article why but it seems that it took a while for the world to pick up on Dan’s style, hence why I had a glut of books to go through in one hit.

Dan been has picked up on for messing with the truth, as a number of people read his stories, take them as gospel (literally) and then go off to Rome or the Louvre to see if what he has said is real.  I have to say, I remember reading them and thinking this all does sound quite plausible.  And, in doing so, thinking I want to visit these places to see where he is describing and if it rings true.

Seven years on I’ve been to the Vatican, but have kinda been past the whole exploring Angel and Demon’s phase. But these books have sparked tours and whole tourism trade for the places they are based.

Out today is his new block buster – Inferno.  All I know is it is based on Dante but the premise is a closely guarded secret.  Florence, where some of the book is based is hoping for an uplift on tourism numbers alone, dependent on this launch.  I don’t think they really care about the story being fact of fiction.

So another Dan Brown juggernaut rolls off the shelves and into the general psyche. They are predicting big things for this one, and I might just be swept a lot for the ride.  Why?  Well I like a good puzzle and I’ve got some time to fill over the next week so it seems like a good idea.  Time for a download on to the iPad me thinks ( I don’t do hardback, too unwieldy).

Review, coming to a blog you know soon….

Rosie Hopkins’ Sweet Shop of Dreams by Jenny Colgan

Phil: Who knew chick-lit could vary so much? My previous dabbles in the genre were quite hard-core compared to this sugary little number from Jenny Colgan.

Rosie Hopkin is an agency nursing auxiliary who finds herself between contracts. As it happens, her aunt Lillian is old and poorly. As far as Rosie’s family are concerned, what is required is someone to go and look after Lillian, move her to a home and then flog the cottage and business to fund this. Rosie finds herself moving from London to the fictional village of Lipton expecting to spend a short and dull few weeks organising the aged relative.

You’ll not be surprised to discover that things don’t pan out quite as expected. The locals turn out to be more interesting than expected. Rosie falls in love with the shop and a few other things. Lillian has her own back story that influences Rosie’s decisions – in fact we find the two tales running alongside each other for much of the book. While Rosie’s story is the backbone of the book, Lillian’s is revealed gradually until the two come together at the end.

A classic “fish out of water” story but none the worse for it. At 468 pages, it’s a whopper of a book but I couldn’t see anything that could have been left out, not even the discussions on old sweets at the start of each chapter. In fact my only complain is that the stupid italic and heavily seriefed font used for Lillians bits is quite difficult to read. That’s a bad thing as Colgan obviously specialises in the sort of comfortable reading that will appeal to older readers who don’t want anything cutting edge or with big dollops of shagging (there is one dollop here but it’s tastefully written and doesn’t overstay its welcome) and I bet they really struggle with it. Some MacMonkey at the book designers wants a slap for this.

I suppose the characters are a bit cartoony, your lady of the manor and horny handed sons of the soil are pretty standard. Having said this, most have a back story that adds depth and is nicely pulled together by the end of the book. You do care about them although I struggled to build a mental picture of Rosie. Maybe I wasn’t paying attention but I don’t know what she looks like apart from curly dark hair and a curvy figure. The ending does everything you want but with a few twists and turns along the way.

Enjoyable? Yes. Very pleasant and just the thing for holiday reading. There’s a story about a cake shop that I might just have to find. For research purposes of course.

Rosie Hopkins’ Sweet Shop of Dreams at Amazon

What’s good in book covers?

Phil: When you read a Tweet from an author commenting on a BBC news story that reads:

“The process of designing a book cover is collaborative.. involving the author” – BULLSH1T, HarperCollins. Rarely…

You think, “There’s some history there.”

And you’d be right. Polly Courtney famously ditched her publishers at the launch of her novel “It’s a mans world”. Well, I say famously but neither of us knew about it until we went to the self publishing clinic at Stratford Literary Festival, but then that’s because neither of reads the literary sections of the newspapers properly and as far as we are concerned, the publishing world consists of dumbos who haven’t (yet) recognised our talent with the offer of a five-figure book deal.

Anyway, the session fired us both up to think about how we get our book out there. One aspect that interested me a lot was consideration of the package you present as an author. There’s a lot to think about in appearing to fit within a genre. Books full of SAS rescues don’t look like those involving women and cupcakes. This extends beyond the cover and onto the web site – hence my concern.

As an interesting exercise, I happened to have a couple of Polly’s books handy (read both- reviews will follow on here eventually but if you want a spoiler, they were great) and so I thought it would be interesting to see what was so terrible about them. I waved both under the Nolan’s nose as well as my own and surprisingly we felt differently about them.

The Fame Factor, to me, looks pretty much bang on for the content. There’s an X-Factor look about the design, something that fits the story fairly well. The soft design though would seem to say chick-lit and I’d certainly say it was aimed at women. Candice didn’t like it as it’s too busy.

It’s a man’s world though, I didn’t like.

More than that, I really hate the subtitle “But it takes a woman to run it” which indicates the story is no more than the traditional woman in a man’s world shtick where you just know she’ll win through by the end of the book collecting a square-jawed bloke and a lovely house along the way. The Guardian describes the cover as containing “the chick-lit staple of a pair of slender legs”. Basically, the publishers say it’s a girly book. Oddly, my friend was happier with it but then she hasn’t read either book yet and so is looking at it from market position, which if you are expecting chick-lit, it does it well. Point proved I think.

What conclusion can I draw? Well for a start, I think Polly has a point. Never mind sacking the publisher, I’d have gone down to the marketing department and stuffed their stupid coloured pens up their nostrils. From my reading, this isn’t chick-lit, far from it. I can see why it potentially would appeal to some of that market and why the marketing team would try to push them in that direction, but there’s a lot that is not chick-lit inside. Proper, real issues are confronted. With passion. The male characters aren’t written as 1 dimensional idiots. The plots do not revolve solely around the main character looking for lurve.

If the publishers insist that your work is packaged in a way you don’t think works, it must be very frustrating. You might also wonder if any of them have bothered reading the contents or could you just submit a few hundred pages of Loreum Ipsum.

I bet a few readers got a shock too. They bought a book that promised cupcake and just as they started to nibble around the edges, great big real issue exploded from under the mock-cream and cherry topping. Now, this might be welcome by some who want a dish with more to chew on but if you just want fluff then it’s probably too hearty a meal for you.

What worries me is that we are also not writing pure chick-lit. Our book should be enjoyable for men and women. Yes, there are chick-lit elements as there are in the books above, but then you can see the same touches in James Bond books which certainly don’t get pink fluffy covers. Can stories with a female main character only be chick-lit? How can design say that we’re writing for everyone? Do publishers need to follow the Harry Potter model of offering different covers to allow varied markets, in that case adults and children, to read the same book?

Talking to a ‘National Treasure’

Candice: Phil and I were lucky enough to attend an event at Stratford Literary Festival last week, presented by Michael Palin.  To quote the lady who introduced him, everyone else Pales in comparison (ha ha).

I’ve been a fan of Michael’s for years, as our six form common room would always be full of the sounds of boys chuckling to ‘The Knights who say Ni‘ or ‘The Parrot Sketch‘.  Whether we wanted to be fans or not, we took it in by osmosis.  In fact, it was more the films than the Python TV show as they were on repeat on the TV and we’d sneakily watch them and then spend the next days quoting stuff back.  My one friend took on herself to write down all the words to the song at the start of ‘The Meaning of Life’. Year’s later the same group of female friends who listened at school went to see ‘Spamalot‘ and were quoting sections back to the cast (which they realised as we were in the front row and Lancelot was winking at us as we did it!)

Mr Palin has done alot, from Python to films to some random children’s books and then a travel writer.  It’s quite a varied list, though his presentation his travel shows is always done with tongue firmly in cheek, and I wonder if some times he’s going to break into the Ministry of Silly Walks.

Sitting listening to him talk for an hour, it was less about the art of writing per se but more about the amount of things he’d done. But he gave us snippets of some of the scripts he’d written as well the above mentioned books.  What I didn’t realise he is has actually written two fiction books, the most recent being ‘The Truth’.  As we were running out of time I didn’t get the full gist, but I might have to search this one out. The hour wasnt enough to get in nearly 50 years of experience and anecdotes.  However, he comes across as such a nice chap I could see you walking over to the local pub and carrying on the conversation over a pint!

I’d been set a task by the other half for the evening, as Michael is from Sheffield, the hubby wanted to know who he supported.  Well, while sneaking a cheeky photo, I asked.  ‘United’ was the response, I mentioned Richard was a Wednesday man, but Michael came back and said really either as he always supports his northern roots.  Good answer!

I’m not sure I came away from the event learning any more about writing but I certainly had a good laugh.

The Descendants by Kaui Hart Hemmings

Phil: I saw this at the cinema. Well, strickly speaking I saw most of it as I was working the box office that evening and so missed the first 15 minutes - basically those scenes that set the story up and explain what the whole descendants thing is all about. Thus, I was mystified for most of the movie.

The synopsis explains that Matt King’s (George Clooney) wife is in an accident that leaves her in a coma from which she will not recover. He has to arrange for everyone to say their goodbyes and this involves re-connecting with his two daughters. Along the way he discovers his wife was having an affair and has to settle the future of a great big chunk of Hawaii that his family (The descendants bit) owns.

The film handles each plot strand well but pushes the land decision and relatives rather more than the book. This makes sense as the written version is very strong on Matt’s internal dialogue, something difficult to film. If I remember correctly, Clooney narrates much of the story but since this isn’t a popular cinematic device, they tried to show as much as possible visually.

The book is much darker in this respect and all the better for it. While all the characters at the cinema are on the page (and vise versa), they are far more rounded. Sid, the “friend” of the older daughter has much more of a back story here than on-screen. The daughter, Alex, is an ex-model as well as ex-drug addict and since her mother was also a model, this provides an interesting parallel between the two women.

Both book and film are set on Hawaii and I found this is fascinating. Here we have a society that isn’t just a little bit of America (as I would have expected) but has its own traditions and history. The background of the different islands is important too. Theres plenty of the sort of day-to-day detail that gives the story a window into the real and slightly humdrum world of its characters.

Approaching this as a writer, the main thing I enjoyed was the handling of dialogue. Both spoken and internal, this drives the story forward. With a bit of luck I’ll learn how to format it on the page in future! I’m also working on a short story that uses first-person narrative and reading an entire book written this way helps me get my head around it.

As a reader, this is a dense book. While not a fat tome, it seemed to take me a long while to work through it. Sometimes you fly through the pages but not this time. Despite knowing the ending, I really enjoyed the read so that wasn’t a problem. To use a food metaphor, it’s like a steak pie. Supermarket ones seems to be as much gravy as meat. A farm shop near me fills the pastry with dead cow. Much more satisfying but more to chew. This is a Farm Shop book.

For the observant, there is a funny moment when the younger daughter, Scottie, wears a T-shirt to the hospital with “Mrs Clooney” on it. When it was just a book, this was funny. Now with this cover, you wonder if it’s more so or just weird.

The Descendants at Amazon