Authors Electric

You may be in either camp or be a hybrid, as I am. In the course, though, of writing a novel we may all come to the same block: we know where to go  and exactly what to do there...but we can't seem to figure out how to get there smoothly and efficiently. I found myself on a roll with my WIP when the ending of the seventh chapter threw me for a loop. Consider: Chapter 7 ends with two of the three main characters--let's call them A and B--engaged in risky business in a small Arizona town. They've arranged for C to follow them days later on a different pretext, apparently looking for work. But, unknown to them, something has happened in Tucson. Chapter 8. Change of POV. Cut to character C, left behind in Tucson. Because of what's happened, he chooses to leave a day early though he can't reach A and B by phone. The challenge: getting him on the road and to his destination, while filling readers in on the Tucson tragedy. Road trip? Flashbacks? I tried a dozen different t...

  Image by Viviane Monconduit from Pixabay I love it when cats tell the story. One of the best books I read was Jennie by Paul Gallico. On my favourite app Good Reads I looked it up again because my umpteenth copy has long gone missing... Do you know it? It's about a boy who wakes up as a cat. He does not know how to be a cat but luckily he meets Jennie, a real cat who teaches him all he has to know.  This is my memory, and it often fails so maybe I am getting it all wrong. My point is: can books be written from a cat's point of view. My answer is: yes of course they can. Why not?  But then I remember when enrolling into a writing course, I was told in no uncertain terms that cats made flat story tellers. So for a long time, I didn't. And then I read another fantastic cat book: The Travelling Cat Chronicles by Hiro Arikawa. I am looking at a copy right now. It is not so much what is said in the story but what is left out. The travelling happens in Japan and follows the c...

An author friend and I have been writing stories together for years, and our collaborations are usually seamless. We agree on so much, but there is one thing we don't agree on.  I’m all for having a different point of view, but what if we have a different point of view about … point of view, also known as PoV?  Establishing point of view for a story isn’t easy since there are many to choose from: first person, second person, third person limited, and third person omniscient.  Point of view filters everything in a story. There are pros and cons for each choice. Where I differ from my friend is in the use of third person omniscient.   He likes it, and I don’t. Simple as that.  We’ve managed to write some fabulous stories together, so this difference may be a matter of personal preference and nothing more. Regardless, I thought it'd be interesting to explore the omniscient PoV more closely.  First of all, what is it?  An omniscient narrator is one tha...

There’s a marina not far from our house – Aqueduct Marina near Church Minshull – where Andy and I often go for a Saturday brunch. It’s rather relaxing to sit and eat and watch the narrowboats come and go. There’s a bookcase there, stacked with second-hand paperbacks, and a collection tin to donate to keep the waterways moving. I often buy and donate paperbacks (and I left copies of my own books there once or twice as well). Last weekend, I found a copy of Gillian Flynn’s Dark Places , which I bought for the princely sum of one pound. No, the writer will get no benefit from this onward sale, but at least she’ll get a warm fuzzy glow from knowing she’s helped with the upkeep of Britain’s canal system. *** SPOILER ALERT *** If you haven’t read this book, intend to read it, and don’t wish to either be affected by my opinions or find out the ending, please click off this page and go and do something more productive. Write something, maybe? Watch tv? Whatever. But don’t read th...

San Sebastian, La Gomera I'm working on a new version of an old back-list novel. I began by thinking it would involve typing up the manuscript, revising as I went along, but it soon became obvious that it needed more than that. Major changes were in order. The book was originally bought by The Bodley Head and published by Random House a long time ago. I think the central story is fine, but I’ve matured as a writer. Just as well, really. When I reread it before starting work on it, my chief emotion was a sort of horrified embarrassment and NOT, I might add, embarrassment at the significantly erotic content. It was more a question of writing technique and not the other sort. What, I kept wondering, was I thinking about? More to the point, what was my editor thinking about? Happy days on board Simba When I look at the novel now, I can see so many elements of it which need work, not least a confused and confusing perception of point of view. It began as a tale told from a ...