Authors Electric

Someone recently reminded me that I had contributed a series of blog posts on the topic ‘Historical Novels: How much research is too much?’ to an online event, the Edinburgh ebook festival, seven years ago. As I’ve written a few historical novels since then, among other things, I thought it might be interesting to revisit the questions I asked some writers of historical fiction as part of my preparation to write the blog posts, and to find out whether my own answers might have changed in the mean-time. My grandmother in Edwardian dress The idea for the topic of too much research sprang from my attempt, much more than seven years ago, to write an epic novel of the English Civil War. I say ‘attempt’ not because I didn’t finish the thing, but because I felt it was overloaded with research to the extent that the end result was probably more or less unreadable. Certainly I came up against all the questions listed below, and have encountered them again over the years. Incidentally one of the...

It’s been a while, hasn’t it? So you all thought Aunty Debbie’s helpful problem page had ceased trading since the  last post ? Well, no such luck – I’m still here and still dispensing wisdom like oil of cloves on a rotting tooth. And probably about as useful … I bet you think I make all this rubbish up, don’t you? And I do. Sort of. But every ‘question’ I’ve answered in this little series has been based on fact – a snippet I’ve read online, or heard people discussing. Yes, I have on occasion embellished reality in order to make a point (hey, I am a writer; it's what we do), but the basis is all real. There really are people – authors and readers – out there who genuinely believe this stuff. And it’s my mission to put them straight! Dear Aunty Debbie: I’ve just read this fantastic book on my kindle. Would you like to read it too? I can email it to you with another one I bought last week. In fact, I bought a USB stick from some bloke on the internet – it was only a t...

So the questions have been pouring in to my Agony Aunt mailbox since my last post . People just can’t get enough of my helpful advice, can they? So in the spirit of spreading the love and knowledge, here are some more tidbits for your delectation. Dear Aunty Debbie: Why are some ebooks so expensive? So many people give them away for free, so why doesn’t everybody? Why should I pay for something that isn’t even physical? It’s not like there’s a printing cost, is it? A Broke Reader Dear Broke Reader: You and me both. Broke, that is. But we both have to eat and pay our bills, don’t we? I’m assuming you have some kind of a job to pay yours? And as a writer, my job is – well – writing! So I need to be able to pay my bills too, and it takes an awful lot of book sales at FREE to pay any bills at all, if you get my drift? And while an ebook may incur no print or storage charges, it still requires the same bum-on-seat writing time, the same editing costs and the same design costs. So...

Carrying on my sporadic and probably utterly useless advice column from previous posts , because I'm sure you all are just desperate to know what pearls of wisdom I can dispense, aren't you? I'm a published writer , for God's sake. I must know what I am talking about... Dear Aunty Debbie: I want to be published. I don't care who with, but I don't want to do it myself, because that just means I'm rubbish, doesn't it? An Impatient Writer. Dear Impatient Writer: Not really. I mean you may be rubbish, yes. I can't possibly comment on that. But what's wrong with doing it yourself? Seriously, these days, independent publishing has lost a lot of the stigma it once had. It's not vanity publishing - you're not paying to be published; you are just buying in the services that you need. Think about it - what is small press Joe Bloggs Publishing going to do for you that you can't do yourself? If they edit for you, who will be doing the work? ...

This is the last segment of this simplified look at the usefulness of questions for a writer. Previously, we considered the value of who and where ,  then what and how in developing characters, situations and exploiting the interactions that necessarily arise from them. In fact, it seemed that just the four of them generated so many sub-questions that plots were already thick enough. However, when you add 'when' and, perhaps the most important of the lot, 'why', you uncover possibilities and variations which can take narratives in some unexpected directions. When? Yes, but it'll be a lot clearer when I get a marker pen. On the surface, ‘when’ is relatively easy. Your choice of epoch can suit your strengths and/or overcome your weaknesses. If your grasp of quantum mechanics is a bit sketchy, put your characters in a space ship launched by a civilisation so advanced that all its machines, including the computers that drive them, run on minimal amounts of...