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Great Place for Free Writing Tips

September 5, 2009 in On Writing

I was scouring the ‘Internets’ for some fresh writing tips to help me move along in my fantasy novel, which seems to be stuck in the mud a little lately.  I’d write for a couple of hours or churn out a few thousand words, but somehow I’d still be writing the same scene, or even the same bloody conversation!  Arrrgh!  What gives?

Anyway, I came across the website of English-born, Australia-living cult fantasy/sci-fi author Richard Harland, who was benevolent enough to give out all 145 pages of his writing tips, absolutely free!  The best part is that you can download them all in a PDF rather than click on link after link.  It covers a broad spectrum of topics, from establishing good writing habits all the way to getting published.  I didn’t find all of it to be helpful, but a lot of it was.

Mr Harland is giving out free writing tips!

Mr Harland is giving out free writing tips!

For those wondering who he is and what he’s done, they can read it up themselves at his Bio Page here.  It seems he was always a gifted writer that just lacked motivation to finish what he started – but once he did start finishing things, his writing career took off.  Of course, there was a sizable chunk of luck involved, as there usually is.  I can only say I am envious and long for the day where I can write for a living without having to worry about paying the bills.

Oh, and here is his page of links to the websites of other writers of fantasy and speculative fiction in Australia, such as Trudi Canavan and Traci Harding.  Some of them (such as Paul Collins), also provide writing tips.

So thank you, Mr Harland!

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Point of View

September 4, 2009 in Fantasy, Novel, On Writing

The point of view of the narrative of a piece of fiction or novel is often a brain-crushing issue.

I subscribe to a newsletter called Ginny’s Fiction Writing Blog, and recently I came across a post entitled ‘First Person or Third for New Writers?’

I was surprised to see that the advice given to new writers is to write from the First Person perspective (ie, I did this, I felt this) as opposed to the Third Person perspective (ie he did this, she felt this).  Surprised because at the only creative writing course I attended, we were recommended to use Third Person in all our writing exercises, as we were told that it was ‘easier’ and caused less problems for inexperienced writers.  I have also read several books on writing which also suggested that newbies should start off with Third Person, and when they have built up more confidence, to move on to First Person.  That said, even when writing in the Third Person, when writing individual scenes, we were advised to stick to the perspective of a single person (as opposed to an omnipresent God-like narrator that knows what everyone is thinking and feeling).  It allows readers to relate more, we were told.

the-time-travelers-wife

Audrey Niffenegger told the story using two First Person perspectives

There’s actually a lot more than just the simple distinction between First Person (eg Twilight by Stephenie Meyer) or Third Person (eg Harry Potter by JK Rowling).  There are books that utilise the First Person narrative but using two separate characters (eg The Time Traveler’s Wife by Audrey Niffenegger), or even multiple First Person narratives (like My Sister’s Keeper by Jodi Picoult).  Or there are books like The Book Thief by Markus Zusak, which, on the face of it is a First Person narrative (told from the perspective of Death), but because the narrator watches the story unfold from afar, it reads more like a Third Person narrative.

Personally, I don’t have a problem with any style, as long as it is effective.  Out of all the styles described above, only the multiple First Person perspectives (ala My Sister’s Keeper) didn’t feel quite right to me.  It was just a bit too confusing having to jump from one character to another.  Even though each point of view was split into separate chapters, I felt like I could never get into the characters like I should have.  Rather than getting a better sense of what each character was like and how they felt, it ended up having the opposite effect.  Anyway, that’s just me.

my-sisters-keeper-01

My Sister's Keeper used multiple First Person perspectives. Of course, it and The Time Traveler's Wife are now both movies.

So when it came time to decide on what perspective to use for my own fantasy novel, I struggled a lot.  As I always tend to try and put myself in the shoes of the main character, I started off believing that First Person would be most appropriate.    But the problem with using First Person all the way through is that the knowledge you convey to the reader is confined to a single person.  My antagonist also had a great story to tell, and I didn’t want to deprive my novel of his story.  So I started contemplating the idea of the shifting First Person perspective method, where I would tell the story from two views – the protagonist and the antagonist.  But that was still only two characters.  I also wanted all my characters to be fleshed out properly, for each one of them to have real emotions that they could convey to the reader.  But then I read My Sister’s Keeper and felt the multiple First Person perspectives didn’t work, so I scrapped that idea.  Then came the idea of interchanging Third Person narrative with First Person.  It’s been done before.  You tell the story in Third Person, and every few chapters you throw in one from the First Person perspective, written in italics.  It sounded good but was probably beyond my skills as a writer.

In the end, I went with what felt right.  Yep, I decided on Third Person, all the way.  I asked myself – what’s the most important thing here?  Of course, it was simply to tell the story in the most effective way.  I wanted to give the reader a good sense of each of the main characters.  I didn’t want to confine the view to a single person, or even two.  I also wanted exciting action sequences and battles told as though the reader was an eagle watching from above.  I wanted the novel to play out like a movie that would let the audience know what I want them to know, when I want them to know.  The truth is, you could probably do that with any of the narrative techniques, but as a new, inexperienced writer still learning the nuances of the craft, Third Person just made it a whole lot easier.

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Getting back to writing

September 2, 2009 in On Writing

george

As George Costanza would say: I’m back, baby!

It’s been a while, but for the first time in months, I worked on my novel today.  My beautiful, glorious, neglected fantasy novel.  Sure, it was rough and it was tough, and the production was patchy and pathetic, but it’s the most I’ve managed to do since I stopped writing to concentrate on my exams in late May.  Yay!

So why the long break?  Well, I could say I had to study for my exams, then did a whole of of travelling, then had to get my life back in order (and visit my new little niece).  I could also blame it on the books I had been reading, the movies I had been watching, or this blog even.  But I’ll admit – all excuses!  I was just lazy and lacked motivation.

Anyway, now I’m back and I’ll be working on it every day.  Every day until this first draft is complete.  It may take weeks.  It’ll probably take months.  Either way, no more excuses.

By the way, reading back on what you wrote months ago is a cringeworthy experience.  Shudder.

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Book Review: ‘The Pin Striped Prison’ by Lisa Pryor

September 1, 2009 in Book Reviews

pin striped prison

The Pin Striped Prison: How overachievers get trapped incorporate jobs they hate by Lisa Pryor was given to me by a mate, a fellow lawyer, just before he was about to leave to work in Singapore (right after working in New York).  I thought, if you take out the ‘overachievers’ bit, this book could be describing my life!

Well, I just finished reading it.  You would have thought such a book would be somewhat dry, but it’s actually very funny, frightening, and for the most part, a brutally accurate description of how many high flying corporate workers of this generation feel about their jobs.  Of course, those that are currently in the unfortunate position she details in the book will be able to relate the most.

The book focuses on three types of jobs – lawyers, bankers and management consultants, though Pryor focuses more on lawyers than the other two because of her background in law.  She may or may not have even provided quotes from the staff at one of the places I worked at (and will be returning to shortly)!

You’re probably thinking – what do these lucky people have to whinge about? They’ve always been at the top of the food chain academically or athletically or socially (and in some cases all three) at school and are now working in jobs millions can only dream of getting into.  Pryor, a former law student who topped the state during high school, says that it’s not as glorious as outsiders like to think.  The top high school students tend to be siphoned into the ‘prestigious’ courses at university, choosing a path based on what their mark allows them to get into rather than where their interest lies.  These students are then targeted by the big bad firms who wine and dine them with promises of big bucks and glorious, exciting work.  By the time they realise it’s all been a huge mistake and that they hate what they do, can’t stand the ridiculous hours or the stress, they find it difficult to get out – because of mortgages and lifestyles to maintain, expectations of parents and friends, pride, and fear of failure.

Pryor calls this a kind of ‘brain drain’ that is affecting our culture by pushing the nation’s best minds into the same few professions in the private sector.  She draws upon many real life examples, including the astronomical number of Rhodes scholars that end up working for major consulting firms.  There are also plenty of comments from those who have managed to escape the vicious cycle, or those that are still trapped in it.  Some aren’t afraid to give their real names, while others prefer to to use pseudonyms.

However, The Pin Striped Prison is not without problems.  Because I make the same mistake, I’ve noticed that Pryor has a tendency to want to put in every piece of information she has.  Sometimes it only takes one example, two at the most, to demonstrate a point, but Pryor may use five or six. It gets to a point where you want to say ‘okay, I get the point, move on!’

Further, I didn’t agree with everything she said, in particular some views she expressed in the section on sexism.  For instance, Pryor suggests that sexism is the reason why female lawyers who work part-time don’t get promoted to partnership as easily or quickly as those that work full-time.  But is sexism really the problem here?  Isn’t it more attributable to the fact that the lawyer who only works 3 days a week may not be able to service the client as well as one that works 5, or that if they worked for 5 years they have in reality only worked 3 (compared to full-timers)?  If I took 2 days off a week to work on my novel, I certainly wouldn’t expect to be promoted to partnership (or at least as quickly as someone who worked full-time), no matter how hard I think I may have worked.

Most of all, while I enjoyed the book’s tone, Pryor does come across as too cynical at times.  She does give the professions some credit, but some of the criticisms felt unjustifiably scathing, as though these large multinationals are truly the devil in disguise, plotting and scheming their way towards ruining more lives.  Perhaps most significantly, Pryor was too smart to be dragged into this world in the first place, as she left her career in law before it even began.  Though she worked as a paralegal and law clerk at major law firms (and her husband, Julian Morrow from comedy group The Chaser, worked as a proper lawyer for a while), she never actually worked the type of hours or endured the type of lifestyle she so vehemently rips into.  As a result, there’s a credibility issue here.  How can she say all these things if she never experienced it for herself?  Sure, she recognises that some people ARE born to be lawyers, bankers or consultants (as tiny as that percentage is).  However, there are also plenty of people who may not be born lawyers/bankers/consultants – BUT – are perfectly happy to work as one for the rest of their careers to reap the financial or social rewards.  Needless to say, I’m not one of them, but I have met such people.

All that said, so much of The Pin Striped Prison rang true to me.  I never got into law because I was seduced by the money or the lifestyle (and certainly not because I was interested in it!) – I was just one of those lost cases that got the marks but didn’t know what he wanted to do with his life and kind of stumbled into it by mistake when the other options fizzled out one by one.  But I do feel the pain that is described in this book.  Ahhh, if only I had the chance to do it all again.  There are many passages that were so spot on that made me want to write them down.  Here are two that I did.

‘For many lawyers, the pessimism they display is not inherent.  They are pessimistic because they are not naturally lawyers.  They are simply smart kids who have been shoehorned into the legal profession because we live in a culture which says that law is what smart kids study at university.”

“When you’re working as a lawyer and you’re unhappy as a lawyer, you spend a lot of time dreaming of other options.  Although the law is an intellectually challenging profession it’s not a particularly creative one.  I think that is why so many lawyers yearn to be writers.”

What?  And I thought I was special.

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