I was thinking around a recent comment on my character arc post. Kev wrote:

Planning a story arc for a character can be difficult until you know the character fully, this not always the case when you start a writing about/with them.

My response was that I did not feel the character(s) need to be completely mapped out prior to writing - in fact, I would now extend that to purposefully leaving gaps in the character’s personality and back-story that will be revealed by their actions as he lives and breathes the story.

The journey reveals the character

I have had my nose buried in a small book by Bernard Cornwell, the creator of the Sharpe series entitled Sharpe’s Story. If you are not aware, the Sharpe books are a model for how I will initially develop my TableRappers series, and so it was not difficult to find the time to read a book all about their history.

One early passage reminded me of Kev’s comment:

… I knew I needed a hero, but I never once sat down and tried to delineate him in my mind; instead I let him develop as I wrote the book … Sharpe was pretty much a mystery to me when I started writing [the first book].

Even at that stage, Cornwell aimed to write a series of books about his roguish rifleman in the Napoleonic Wars of the early 1800s, having himself been inspired by C.S. Forester’s Hornblower novels. Yet, the central character of Sharpe was little more than a sketch, with simple back-story and a handful of influencing circumstances. Sharpe revealed himself as much to the author as he does to the reader.

I like that way of writing. Reading a book should be a journey of discovery, so why not writing it, also? Of course, there’s the ever present risk of having to re-work already written passages as a result of some late revelation, but writing is re-writing anyway.

The characters write the story

You may think it is the author who directs the passage of the story. But it is, in fact, the characters. Sometimes they surprise you with their actions. You may have one direction in mind but on writing, they can take off an run in a completely different direction. It is exciting (and sometimes troubling to get them out of whatever complications arise out of their actions)!

This may become an additional challenge for me from the second TableRappers book onwards. By book two, there will be few surprises buried in my characters’ personalities and lives. Though I do have a few clues to currently firmly secured skeletons here and there, I may find the adventure of discovering more of the people I am writing about to be more predictable - for me, that means less interesting.

I will only know for sure when I am deeply embroiled in book two. Hopefully, if the situations into which I throw my hapless characters are interesting enough in themselves, everything will work out just fine.

Book two, A Shot in Time,  will be a very intriguing exercise and I anticipate quite a contrasting writing experience that I am very much looking forward to.

Arcs are, of course, essential. The reader must follow a character’s journey through each story and that journey must somehow create change around, and more importantly within the character. He may even end up coming full circle, but there must always be a curve of some description - linear characters invariably lose the reader’s interest.

The problem arises in writing multiple books in a series. One must develop plausible arcs for the main characters within each book while maintaining a much broader arc across the entire series.

Letting it all out too early

The first book seems to be the toughest in this respect. The inclination is to develop a thoroughly gripping character arc for the tortured primary protagonist just as with any standalone novel. But it is vital not to play all the cards too early, leaving so few options across the remaining stories that our protagonist might need a dramatic personality change in order to remain interesting! This seems to happen frequently in long running soaps.

Holding too much back

On the flipside, there’s the danger of keeping too much back. Playing out the character arc across so many books in the series that it becomes flattened with each individual story dulled and uninteresting.

What about a book series with no absolute final number of stories? Without understanding the end, how can you develop a character arc that will find completion and not leave your readers dangling in the dark?

Dimensions are everything

To offer the broadest opportunities to develop smaller character arcs within the overall arc, fully formed characters, it seems to me, are the key. Characters do not need to be complex, but they do need to have realistic, multiple dimensions - sometimes conflicting dimensions are the most interesting to write.

Such characters merely need a situation thrown at them and they take on a life of their own. Writing their actions and reactions to a situation is much more straightforward with a well defined character.

I’m no expert, of course, I’m merely on my first novel, but it seems clear that to sustain my characters across an undefined number of books, they must have a great deal of substance.

Early thoughts in early days. Ask me in ten years if these ideas worked!

I posted on the TableRappers site yesterday an announcement about the fifth book in the series. The concept I have had hanging around for a while, but the title escaped me until quite recently.

I find titles vital in the early stages of a creative project. They help to create focus, to solidify the idea beyond simply vague concepts. From a practical viewpoint, they create opportunities to organise and schedule.

As a graphic designer, one of the first tasks for a new project is always to create a brand, develop a logo, construct a visual representation of the idea. This process transforms the idea from little more than a spark of inspiration, into tangible potential.

Planning that far ahead?

I have always had in the back of my mind to write a minumum of six TableRappers books. But for now, the premise for book six is little more than a vague notion regarding the story arcs of the main protagonists - the ‘big picture’ stuff - and with book one still being written, I have enough to concentrate on for the next two to three years.

In a recent interview published in Writer’s magazine, Iain Banks, when asked whether he works on future books while writing the current one, responded with “Good god, no”.

I simply could not work exclusively on just one project. Sure, the primary project gets 95% of my energy, but I’m always looking ahead, planning the future development, and setting my sights on ever expanding horizons. For me, if I am planning on writing full time (eventually), then I better have enough ideas up my sleeve to keep me occupied!

Avoiding disappointment

First criteria is to select something I will spend real money on that will not leave me feeling I should have spent that money on a couple of good cappuccinos. I think I have read more words of reader reviews than are contained within the books themselves!

I wrote recently about my continuing disappointment when searching for new writers to taste. Who can you listen to for advice? Thankfully, I am lucky enough to have someone close at hand who has intimate knowledge of many of the currently available best selling novels. It helped narrow the field.

Reading around what I write

I have written before about the trappings of reading works that are too similar in style to my own writing. My mind instinctively tries to emulate any other style I enjoy reading myself. Not a good prospect, of course, but less so now that I am over 100,000 words into my own novel.

However, as I do so little reading, each selection to some extent falls into the realms of research. Whether it be research around subject matter, or simply looking at how another author might have tackled particular situation, reading for me has to be more than pure pleasure.

I don’t want a real book

This one proved to be a rather inhibiting criteria. I am taking my new Sony PRS-505 ebook reader on vacation. This immediately limits my selection to what is available in ebook format, and the publishing industry, though accelerating, is still some way off having an adequately broad selection. Add to that sometimes poor implementations of the ebook sections of online bookstores - even Waterstones do not have the ability to search through just the ebooks! - and the search for a chosen title grinds to a sluggish shuffle.

Thanks to bloggers and Amazon

My selection is: Banquet for the Damned by Adam L.G. Nevill - get the ebook version from Waterstones
Few believed Professor Coldwell was in touch with an unseen world - that he could commune with spirits. But in Scotland’s oldest university town something has passed from darkness into light. And now the young are being haunted by night terrors. And those who are visited, disappear. This is certainly not a place for outsiders, especially at night. So what chance do a rootless musician and burnt-out explorer have of surviving their entanglement with an ageless supernatural evil and the ruthless cult that worships it? This chilling occult thriller is both an homage to the great age of British ghost stories and a pacy modern tale of diabolism and witchcraft.

I’ll report back what I think of this book, but with all eight Amazon reviews giving it full five stars, I think I am in safe hands. What could be better than sitting in the Spanish sun reading of ghostly happenings in dark, damp Scotland!

I’m not going to let out exactly who mugged me of a couple of hours of reading, suffice to say it is an author with a widespread online presence, a very “geeky” following, and this particular short story was in the sci-fi genre (no horror involved).

It all started so well

I was enthusiastic after the first few pages. A balanced dose of exposition but with the correct amount of colour and no need to take notes to keep up with information overload.

Then something went “eh?”

The main character changed personality. Or at least, reacted to a situation in stark contrast to what one might expect based on the information of him gleaned during the opening of the story.

Then it all fell apart

All it took was one of those “stuff happens that would actually be plausible if I could be bothered to go back and tweak some earlier stuff, but hey, what’s the point” moments.

I did not finish reading the story.
Having been mugged for enough of my time, I almost threw my Sony reader across the room in disgusted frustration, feeling the urge to email everyone I knew who liked this author’s work for some compensation. This is why I stopped reading science fiction so many years ago, and why my reading in general decreased as I found so little that satisfied.

Where to go next?

I have a vacation coming up and require the necessary reading matter to accompany what has been pre-defined as two weeks of total relaxation. In light of the above experience I am once again in the realm of mistrust that deepens with every - far too frequent - disappointment. Am I fussy? Do I simply have too high an expectation? I have no idea, but choosing a book for the holiday is a tricky affair.

Thankfully, the new Sony Reader will be an enormous help as it currently contains over 130 books, of varying lengths, genre, and author. If the chosen vacation read proves another disappointment, I can always switch to some classics from Wells, Conan Doyle, or Algernon Blackwood (my current favourite).

I am currently reading Algernon Blackwood’s The Damned (1914), which Wikipedia describes as “A highly original haunted house tale in which the haunting results from the intolerant religious beliefs of a series of previous residents”, and which I can say is gripping, unnerving, and just what a classic spooky story should be.

But it’s a bit of a mouthful… OK, so what can one expect written in 1914?

Reading the 90-page story, I have the urge to modernise it, to bring the situation and characters right up to date while retaining the underlying original story. I cannot say I have ever reacted to a story in this way. The beauty of The Damned is it’s now out of copyright and freely available (pop over to Project Gunteberg for a copy).

It got me thinking as to why this notion modernising and reworking of classic movies has not (as far as I am aware, please re-educate me if I am mistaken) appeared in the publishing world. It seems more acceptable to revision an idea in the movies than in print. Sometimes these reworks fail, sometimes they improve on the original. Some stories at their core are timeless.

This may be an interesting project to accomplish after the completion of Persistent Spirit and before getting fully imersed in A Shot in Time (the second TableRappers novel).

In addition to the big writing project (TableRappers) and its supplementary tales featuring its characters, I want to create some old-style scary stories. By old style, of course, I means some that are genuinely scary!

I have a pile of horror short story compilations in my reading pile, acquired in recent months on the search for what I find leaves me unnerved and disquieted after reading. I found I left more modern tales behind and was drawn more and more to older, classic stories from the 19th Century up to the 1950s. The purchase of a Sony ebook reader (full review on this great device in the pipeline) has helped as it came packaged with 100 classic books, one of which was the complete works of Poe.

I had not read The Pit and the Pendulum for many years and have a stronger memory of the Hammer horror movie (I’m guessing it was Hammer) of that name, than the originating story. Reading was disturbing. I began to sense what such stories once kindled within me. I was glad I had not read this alone in a dimly lit room. Fantastic!

This contrasts with most of the modern  - to me that is post 1950s - horror tales I have recently read which try, frequently too hard, and fail, leaving me with little more than wanting my time refunded.

And so I am on a mission….

I wrote on my personal blog about creating a classic spooky tale audio episode for this year’s Halloween. If you like that sort of thing, please leave a comment and let me know what you would like to hear.

In addition, I have been reading anything and everything in the genre that I can get my eyes on with the aim of developing some of my own concepts into actual stories.

At the very least I believe I can create somethig that scares the willies out of me, perhaps it will do the same for you.

For the first few years as an aspiring stand-up comic, one must tread the rocky paths of the open spots. These are the 5 minute - or if you are lucky 10 - slots that most smaller comedy clubs make available to new comics honing their techniques.

The open spot routine goes as follows:

• Travel for 2-3 hours to the venue
• Hang around for 1-2 hours waiting for your spot
• Spend 5 minutes in front of a disinterested audience who paid to see ‘real’ comics
• Hope the club promoter saw enough promise in you to give you another spot in a few months
• Go home and re-consider any gags that did not generate a laugh

That may seem rather cynical view, but that is the process when reduced down to its core. It is genuinely much more fun that it sounds, however. These open spots are best handled by packing them with quick-fire gags and quips; fire stuff into the mic, then get the heck off. I found the minimal audience interaction very uninspiring.

So I moved into running a couple of (very) small clubs and acting as compere. The compere spends several time slots working with that night’s audience, warming them up, cooling them down, and generally creating each appropriate segue from the previous to the next act. Most importantly, there is an evolving relationship over the period of the show.

I’m getting to the point, thank you for hanging in there…

I experience a similar problem in the difference between writing a short story compared to writing a novel. But this is not centred around the act of concise writing.

I want to get to know them

Stories are about people - at least I believe mine are, regardless of their respective settings. There’s little more satisfying than learning about the characters one places into a story, understanding their nuances, discovering their quirks, ’seeing’ them play out their lives.

The short story simply does not have the space or the time for such luxuries and that is where my challenge lies. These are interesting, nay fascinating people (they must be as I am including them in my story!).

The dead end of death

This problem is particularly acute in a series of short stories I am writing and planning which will form a collection entitled “Six Deaths” - the title is something of a giveaway - and as you might guess, each character has but a brief sojourn within the pages. And there lies my personal challenge when writing shorts: I want to know these individuals, get under their skins, understand who they really are before… well, let’s just say before they up and leave.

I find writing short stories about the characters that inhabit Edwardian London in the TableRappers book(s), so very much easier and satisfying because I know them such that I do not feel I am missing out on learning about them as individuals.

It feels so utterly disrespectful to create a character for the sake of merely a few thousand words. Perhaps I just need to grow some thicker skin and be a little more ruthless with my characters. Hmm… Six Deaths, how more ruthless can one be..?

Dame Jaqueline Wilson’s My Sister Jodie, a book aimed at the 9 to 11 age group, has sold around 28,000 copies since its release in March this year. After a single complaint about the use of the “twat” in two instances, retailer Adsa pulled the book from its shelves and as a result, publisher Random House has decided to edit the word to “twit” in reprinted versions.

Anne Dixon (no relation) discovered the word when she purchased the book from her local Asda as a gift for her niece. She emailed the author and when she did not get a response (there is no information about how long she waited for a response from one of the top children’s authors around), she complained to Asda who immediately removed all copies from their shelves.

This is not about censorship, it’s about retail muscle

Asda - part of Walmart - have achieved around 23,000 of the total sales of this book. That is a lot of lost sales and so Random House buckled under that potential income drop. From a business viewpoint, I can almost empathise, but as an author it would horrify me.

However, this does not detract from the most important factor: all it took was a single person making a complaint. That is a very slippery path to hyper-sensitive, minority-influenced censorship. But there’s a twist…

Is this just a publicity stunt?

My natural, British cynicism surfaces with any story like this. What goes unmentioned in most accounts appears at the end of this Daily Mail version of the story:

However, the [Asda] spokesman said that Asda had since reviewed the matter and would continue stocking My Sister Jodie in all its UK outlets.

A severe knee-jerk reaction followed by a u-turn. I will leave you to make up your own mind on that call.

The day-to-day demands of working in the UK but with colleagues based in San Francisco, presents challenges to available time. With work heating up for me at around the time it should be winding down each day (early evening), and the potential for it to extend well past a sensible bedtime, the only controlled and contained time span to write appears first thing in the morning. But there’s a problem… I cannot write in the mornings!

I was lucky enough to have time for a lunch with the entertainingly cranky John Dvorak while in San Francisco a few weeks ago. We chatted about writing. He, like nearly all the writers with whom he is acquainted, writes better in the mornings “before all the crap of the day has taken hold”.

I, on the other hand, rarely find the juices flowing until darkness has set in and there’s a distinct chance that the day is not going to throw me another twelve curve balls. There’s a psychological security in that knowledge, you see.

Before it becomes a full-time prospect

It’s my first novel. Like any fledgling writer, the chance of earning a living wage from such projects is marginally better than winning the National Lottery. Four of five books under my belt and there’s a chance of that dream, but for now writing must find its place amongst everything else.

So how on earth do I switch into becoming a morning writer?
I am one of those slow-wakers: up to an hour of numb-brain, zombie-shuffle during which breakfast, some BBC news, and the necessary ablutions seem to occur without any real effort or conscious intent. Eventually, there I am at my desk tip-tapping my login ready for the morning’s mundane tasks. Creative writing is far from my mind.

When it’s dark and the work day is done, my mind comes alive, creatively. Characters speak up and scenes play themselves out so that I have to type twice as fast to keep up. When all the gears are properly lubricated, 800-1000 quite acceptable words in an evening session is not unheard of. In the morning, I am lucky to find a coherent sentence any more creative than an email or a blog post.

I do not believe in insurmountable obstacles, and have discovered way to dramatically increase the chances of triggering creativity when it becomes necessary. Although a method for morning writing still eludes me, I’m looking forward to solving this particular problem.