Book Review #11: Letters From A Murderer by John Matthews

I watch a lot of crime programmes. On Saturdays here in the UK, there are a batch of them on television, FBI Files, Solved, Murder Shift, Couples Who Kill, Born to Kill and so on.

Being a peaceful person, I don't have a healthy interest in killers in themselves, but I am interested in why they do what they do, and the detectives who resolve to capture them.

This book, like Chene's review said, required me to shift focus as I haven't read a book like this in a while. It was gory on a level of the horror 'Screamscapes' which I am also reading, and enjoying.

The book has gripping characters which has already been commented on. As a thriller, it works brilliantly and shows the powers of recommendations from friends of books. You can decide if it is for you or not, but the style (literally 'letters' which explain much of the plot) is engaging, different, and enjoyable.

It was a hard read at times, simply because of the gore factor. Things were happening so brutally and explosively I had to take a break sometimes to take it all in.

But any story about a 'Ripper' style killer has to be gory. It kind of reminded me - loosely - of the film 'From Hell' starring a marvellous Bilbo-free Ian Holm.

Thoroughly recommended. It's also possible if I had my 'horror' hat on, I would give it five stars instead of a strong four out of five. I just didn't adjust to the gore too well. If you can get past that, and it is worth the effort, you will love this book.

Good Reads Give Away: The Essence of Martial Arts

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The Essence of Martial Arts

by John Hennessy

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Writing Goals and How I Do It

What is the most difficult thing for you as a writer? Is it formulating ideas that flesh out a coherent plot? Maybe it is characters...after all everyone wants to read engaging characters they can love, hate, root for...maybe all three.

Is it knowing 'will this be all done and dusted in one book, or do I do a series'?

Certainly, that last point seems to be 'hot' these days, but we should not do a trilogy for trilogy's sake.

Is the most difficult thing, actually getting that first draft done? I would suggest that it is.

For me, with fiction, I went all out for a full length novel.

I created a first draft within seven months of the start. I re-drafted the first three chapters several times, and sent them to many agents. I re-drafted that first draft a further six times, totalling seven drafts in all.

I was born at 7am on the 7th July, 1973. So I take seven as a lucky number, but if the book needed an eighth draft, be sure I would have done it.

The completion of the first draft is hard won. You feel victorious, even though you know that the first draft is in no way good enough for the wider world.

But I need to tell you how I reached this goal in the first place. What writing goals did I set myself, and how did I achieve them?

Well. The starting point was....to start! Nothing revolutionary in itself, but I had the basic idea for the story down. I had a start, a middle, an end. I knew what the characters would do in the story, what their motivations were, and the world in which they operated.

However, over the course of 90,000 words, a lot happens. It needs to, in order to hold the reader's attention.

The story was a paranormal horror / fantasy, so atmosphere was key, and so a fast start wasn't necessary. But I built it in nonetheless.

I wrote the story in first person. I wanted people to feel what that character felt, when she felt it.

This doesn't work for everyone, or every book. It's a hard decision. But for this story, it was the right one.

Working for myself, I need discipline. But I would be lying if I said I got onto the computer at 7am each day and wrote for ten hours. It doesn't work like that for me.

I simply wrote when I could. Sometimes, the noise from neighbours with their constant house improvement projects threatened to derail the whole project.

Through all the annoyance, I stayed true to one thing - that this book simply had to happen.

I had a Word document in which I kept chapter notes, character details, and crucially for goal busting, a list of how many words I had written, on what date, how many achieved, and so on.

I also had an Excel document called book projects. For this story, I set the target at 80,000 words, and had all the cells formulated to show how many I had left to type. Imagine how I felt to blow the 80,000 word min away!

So you have to start, so you can begin hacking it down. Sometimes, I did a few hundred words. On other days, several thousand. When you get your groove, you can fly and you don't want to do anything else.

This can cause issues with your family life, but make it clear that you love them, want to be with them - and you will - but that this is important to you. Only another writer, indeed another reader, will know what you mean.

In short, I would:-

• Decide what length your book is (novella or  full length)
• Clearly map out the start, middle and end
• Have detailed notes on each character - ask yourself what YOU would want to know about them as a reader
• Give each character a voice (have you read books where all the characters sound alike? Make each one stand out!)
• Build the world the characters live in, and don't skimp on the small details
• Not force a trilogy if there is not enough story. If one book will do, make it so
• Set a deadline for the finish of the first draft
• Re-draft the story for at least the amount of time the first draft took you to write
• Send out feelers to agents
• Seek editorial advice - professional
• Seek (but do not take to heart) - advice from friends and family
• Always believe in yourself. You can and you will do this. For you. Not for glory! Just for you.
• Enjoy the experience. Writing should be fun, regardless of the story content. Make it fun for you.

Happy writing!

The Writer's Dilemma: Points of View, Head Hopping, First or Third Person?

Having written two distinct works to date, I wrote for the non-fiction sector and also the fiction sector.

The former was, for most part, written in third person. The latter worked better as first person.

The decision to go with first or third person is one of the most important things you can decide as a writer. You would think this would be obvious, and perhaps it is, especially for those of you who had a creative writing course or something similar to guide you.

I did not, and I will be considering doing one in the future, although my work-home life balance may prohibit me doing that!

So how to come to this decision?

In my novel, though it had just a handful of characters, it focussed the reader's attention on the main protagonist, because I wrote her sections of the story in first person. Because of the themes of the book (paranormal fantasy, horror, ghost story) I thought it would be more claustrophobic for the reader if you were literally behind the character (or indeed, as one review on Amazon put it "You feel like you're inside her head!") and so, feel what she is going through as she was going through it. Hopefully, I conveyed the sense of dread she was feeling, and the weight of the responsibility she was under.

I have failings as a writer but as I always say, and I will continue to do so, this is a hobby for me. A project. I'm learning as I go. It is a constant, gnawing, will-sapping process. But I promise you, it is worth it.

I was very clear from the start of two things. Anything featuring the main character would be in first person.

Anything else, would be in third person.

However, there was a third option I explored, and executed.

If a chapter focussed exclusively on one character, I would sometimes use the first person perspective. This isn't as conflicting as it sounds (honestly!).

I just wanted people to be as close to the action, suspense, drama....et cetera as possible. So it wasn't a case of rooting for your hero or heroine.

I just wanted to put the reader, right the story. Only over time, when the book has been out awhile (and indeed, the print version too) will I know if I have been successful.

One reviewer wrote to me about the head hopping. Of course, I created the characters, and I created the world in which they function. So I know them well. The reader is just getting to know them. So head hopping can be problematic. I do feel, however, for this story at least, that it was the right things to do.

If you were to ask me So what if you wrote it in third person? What would it have been like? 

I think it would have been less engaging for the reader. So as the author, you make the decisions. Your book will live or die by those decisions. I made the decisions I made and I stand by them.

A print version of the book should be out by January 2014. It's possible that the written printed word will have a bigger impact. On Kindle, and its various cousins, it's easy to skip swathes of text. You may miss the dramatic elements I wished to convey. The pre-Kindle authors didn't have this issue, and it took me a while to convert to this new reading platform. I am a convert, but I still prefer and will buy a printed book that I enjoy.

My advice, would be to get personal advice on your work via editorial critique. You can read on the internet people's way of doing things, and in many cases, it will be all common-sense, very practical stuff. The problem is, it is not personal and necessarily applicable to you, or to what you are trying to achieve.

So consider how your work will best suit either format, and then go all out to make it as great as you can.

I can't say for certain that future works of fiction I write would be first person, but it seems that the writing flow worked best in that format for me. You simply have to find the right way that works for you.

I'm wishing you all the best in this venture.

Book Review #10: Cascade (Rivers of Time, 2) by Lisa Tawn Bergren

There was a danger of Cascade being a bit of a let down after the superlative first book in the Rivers of Time series. Waterfall was my fave fantasy book of the year. Like many books, they get recommended to you, unless it's a really popular series like Twilight or the Mortal Instruments series, you may not have heard of it.

I think this is a shame because Cascade (and if the others in the series follow suit) deserves much more recognition than it gets. It may seem to some that this is written by a Cassandra Clare-lite, but Lisa Bergren has her own writing style. It was engaging from page one of Waterfall, and Cascade literally picks up from where the first book ended.

I think fantasy is a difficult genre to pull off, but this is no ordinary fantasy, but a time travelling one. For me, that's much harder to make work. 

Within the first few pages of Waterfall, our heroine Gabi was in ancient Italy. Here in Cascade, we are mainly back in present time. I'm not so fussed about Gabi and her beau, Marcello, but I do like the interplay between Gabi and Lia (Gabi's younger sister) although I think their interactions were slightly better in Waterfall.

There's some real shocks in Cascade that, for young-adult, is pretty strong stuff. To reveal it here would be to reveal too much, but I was like 'oh my God' at some of the scenes.

The energy and pacy style I would say are as good as anything Cassandra Clare has written. I only mention her because these are similar stories in size and scope, but maybe CC is better with the humour. 

Cascade is a rare thing - a brilliant 'second' book and I think will, in time, be recognised for the simply smashing adventure story that it is. I may have to re-read it, along with Waterfall, but it left me gasping for more. Bring on Torrent !!

Book Review #9: Lady in Pearls by Elizabeth Cole

Elizabeth Cole really 'drew me in' with her vivid descriptions and wonderful prose.It's a novella, so I accept it is short, but it would not have been harmed in any way to be longer.

The rather sweet cover belies a very sharply written and intelligent story where the two protaganists, Nathan  Bancroft, and the wily and beautiful Lady in Pearls herself, Vanessa Phillips, seem at the start to outdo one another before falling for each other.

I like that Nathan doesn't fawn over her like some male characters in the regency world tend to do. He's a smartly drawn character, and Vanessa has likeable and alluring traits that develop nicely when these two are thrown together.

So don't dismiss this as another smaltzy romance. Actually I like the cover a lot but it is the story that is satisfying, even through its brevity.

I was born a long time after 1821, but the descriptions are so vivid I felt I was there. You know the holodeck adventures in Star Trek? It's like you could create the perfect regency setting, and it would look like the characters fit into the world created by Miss Cole.

A short story, and in short, I loved it.

I hope Elizabeth Cole writes more like this one. I'll be happy to go back to 1821.

Goodreads Profile for Elizabeth Cole

Amazon Book Page

Be Disciplined in Writing, and You'll be Disciplined in (almost) Everything

What is the single most difficult thing I faced as a writer?

Without doubt, it was the start. So, what to do? In my case, I made extensive notes for Dark Winter, writing out, in some detail, a plot, character list, a 'world that they existed in', and  how they interacted with others in the story. What were / are their motivations? What effect was I going for? Drama, a love interest, a murder....all three?

It's a wonder any books get written at all when we consider what's involved.

Admittedly, you learn as you write, and you learn more once you've completed what you've written.

However, the notes planning was very important. So I had one file called 'Notes', the other called 'Draft One'.

I had the basics of the story in my head. But I will also say that this wasn't my first go at a full length work of fiction.

I credit that story with helping me write this one better.

I not suggesting you attempt to write two stories to achieve one good one. But it is true that the more we use our muscles, the stronger they become. In this case, our writing muscles have to be developed, and this is not as easy as it sounds.

So, how to get the discipline then? One thing I avoided was loads of websites saying 'how to do it'. Before you say 'well there's a conflict with this post then!' I am just writing this to show you what I did, and currently do. Hopefully, it will work for you. At least, I hope some elements will.

As martial arts is a big part of my life, let me explain how the discipline there, helped me, here.

I could be teaching at any time of day, literally. So writing at say, 7am through to 8am sounds great. But writing is not my main income...teaching is. So if I have a lesson then, the work goes into that. The writing project is shelved.

You want to write when you have finished in the evening, so you decide on 10pm through to say, 12 mid-night. But your other half wants you to sleep earlier, so you do that instead.

What I am saying is, writing is important, but things will always come up that you must simply give attention to. We cannot be like Jack Torrance in The Shining, who hates his wife interrupting his writing (not that he did much :).

Of course, we would like to be left alone to write our novel. Yes, the one we'll be remembered for.

Or, if I can share with you my view....the one you will be happy with.

This is not a small world, I-can't-achieve-big-things-vision.  It's more about being happy writing, whether it is non-fiction or fiction.

If you don't enjoy writing, it will become a chore, you will labour to the end, that's if you get there at all, and most likely, you will detest what you've written.

The first step, is just a small one.

Set yourself not a daily goal, or even a weekly one. Just commit to start.

Once you start, you will get it going. Yes, the road will be bumpy, even if you have done extensive notes. Even then, be guarded against those notes constraining your story. As you write, it will naturally develop.

Don't kill off a character in chapter six just because your old notes says so. Do it if it is right. Think about about it, and resolve to make the first draft workable. That is all. Because the net stage, re-drafting, is a longer, more tricky thing to do well.

I find that once I am passed 5,000 words, there is no stopping me. Soon, you will be on 10,000, and depending on the length (novella, series, epic!) you will soon have that first draft completed.

If you have to set a goal, look at it now...we are in 2013, so let's say you will have your draft done - draft One - completed, within six months. Does that sound reasonable? Let's say you don't complete it, but you have say, 80% done...isn't that better than nothing?

I can write from 500 words to around 4,500 words in a day. It doesn't mean I won't delete some, or re-edit large swathes of text as I'm going along, but it's all about getting your writing muscles stronger.

In martial arts, I have that discipline...I've just transferred it to other areas off my life.

You can do it too. Ask yourself what it is that you are most disciplined at, and how you can use that energy and focus to write.

And I will be then happy to see your book out there!

Happy writing!