Authors Electric

  It’s funny where ideas come from, and how they can take hold of you. Just before Christmas, I was listening to a broadcast of Verdi’s Rigoletto, from New York’s Met Opera. It’s an opera that never fails to intrigue me, and every time I hear it I’m struck by just how dark it is thematically (and I learned something new, namely that the opera was based on a story by Victor Hugo). Anyway, there I was sitting with my headphones on and enjoying the performance when that ‘what if?’ moment struck me. What, I wondered, might have happened after the opera finishes. If you’re not familiar with the story, Rigoletto is a court jester, serving the Duke of Mantua. The Duke is a serial womaniser (and possibly guilty of multiple cases of sexual assault). Despite Rigoletto trying to protect his daughter, Gilda, from the Duke (and the world in general, really), she falls for the Duke, for whom she is merely another conquest. Other courtiers, jealous of Rigoletto’s position, kidna...

I am at that chatty stage of my new novel. It’s still new enough that I can   talk about it without boring myself rigid. I have instead bored my husband rigid, not to mention a few other family members, who have all expressed just the right degree of enthusiasm. They know me well and they know they won't have to endure it for long: the chatty stage  won’t last. Soon, even a polite inquiry will be met with a grunt and an expletive and not long after that, the novel will be a topic that is simply not discussed. Ever.     Although this is a relative good moment in the   novel writing cycle, it is a slightly dangerous one because the story of the story gets shorter with each retelling. That’s great for elevator pitches, but as I’m more of a stairs girl myself   (and the backstairs at that ) I don’t need to make a story shorter and simpler, but longer and wilder if it is going to go the distance. I don’t like to know too much too clearly or I los...

English author Debbie Young Most authors at some point in their writing lives will come across the advice that there are ONLY SEVEN BASIC PLOTS - or maybe nine, or thirty-six, or various other numbers, depending on whom you consult.  If you're the glass-half-empty type, it's easy to think: "Oh no, how can I ever hope to be original? Someone will have got there before me!" Whereas glass-half-full types like me may think: "Well, Shakespeare just took existing stories and upcycled them into his plays - if it's good enough for Shakespeare, who am I to complain?" Those who can't even see the glass are probably best advised to throw down their pen and take up golf instead. The BEST thing to do is, of course, to take your choice of basic plot and wrap around it your choice your characters, themes, setting, etc etc to produce a final story that only you could write .  How Shall I Write It? Let Me Count the Ways  (Photo by MJS on Unspla...

I have always seen myself as a dyed-in-the-wool/seat-of-the-pants kind of writer and so, when I begin a new project, I will have an opening and an ending (of a kind that exists way over there in the dim distance), a rough notion of who is making the trip and vague notes on how they are going to get there. However – not unlike travelling the M6 – there are no end of things that can cause detours and delays between start and finish, and I am not averse to bumping off various characters for a bit of added tension! There are writers who plot and plan in minutest detail and produce notes on each section almost as long as the end product; a process that I would call a first draft. I can see the logic behind such meticulous plotting, especially when embarking on a crime novel of the whodunit variety. I reasoned that this genre necessitated my change of tactics – i.e. a fully formed synopsis – because the signposts and clues need to be seeded with more precision. With that in mind I pla...

Am I too old for this social media lark? Being slightly the wrong side of 50, I’ve always been transparent and open in who I am. Maybe that’s naïve in the new online world, where things last forever and once said, can never be unsaid this side of the (zombie) apocalypse. I’ve always been me online. My accounts are always as near to my name as I can get, and I don’t hide behind pen-names or aliases. I can understand why people do, but I’ve never felt the need until now. Because this post is really about editing. And I’ve done editing to death on this blog and others, but here’s a different slant on it. Take this book I read last week. Young adult fantasy and the blurb looked good and it was reasonably-priced with an OK cover. But I can’t review it. Why not? I hear you ask. You’re a writer – surely you know the value of reviews? Well, yes, of course I do. But I can’t review this one. And I haven’t. Because it’s YA fantasy and I can’t give it 5 stars and a glowing write-up. An...

A couple of years back, I was asked in an interview what made a good novel. Let’s dodge the first, obvious problem the question poses, i.e. what do you mean by ‘good’? For most mainstream – and indeed independent – publishers, the answer would probably be ‘one that sells’, while others might demand the application of literary criteria. In the context of the interview, it seemed legitimate to assume that it simply meant ‘enjoyable to read’ and my first, predictably glib, response was to quote the well-known Somerset Maugham quip, which is (approximately) ‘There are three rules for writing a novel. Unfortunately, no one knows what they are’. In fact, it’s a hard question and answers will obviously vary depending on the sort of novel you prefer to read. But the scope (and looseness) of the form almost encourages diverse responses. Mine are pretty basic. First, you have to believe what’s happening in the pages, even if it means stepping outside what’s normally called ‘reality’. Th...