Unless you’re the next J R R Tolkien, it’s best not to attempt a huge outpouring of historical backstory at the beginning of your novel. Your readers want a gripping story, not a history lecture.
There are many ways that you can gradually reveal backstory through your novel without having to halt the telling of your story.
- Setting: Bombed buildings hint at a recent war, a flood may have left your characters living upstairs in their houses. Street names, pub names and building names can hint at historical backstory (such as Battle Square, Hangman’s Lane or The Burning Scholar Inn).
- Culture: A town that used to be plagued by dragons may have a policy on killing lizards, a populace that used to be slaves may eat quickly, a town that suffers regular droughts may value water over money.
- Character: A woman who was attacked may be scared to leave home after dark, someone who was criticised as a child may be a perfectionist as an adult. After a long war, a town may be very short on men, and the men that survived may have trouble re-adjusting to life.
- Dialogue: Characters can, of course, talk about the past, but avoid another outpouring of historical information. Hint at things, leave clues, tell half stories; let your reader enjoy piecing everything together.
Keep writing, because not only does practice improve skill, it gives you more chances to score on the market. I did that for eight years before making my first sale.
— Piers Anthony (via writingquotes)
You see, in my view a writer is a writer not because she writes well and easily, because she has amazing talent, because everything she does is golden. In my view a writer is a writer because even when there is no hope, even when nothing you do shows any sign of promise, you keep writing anyway.
— Junot Díaz (via amandaonwriting)
Your Worst Fears - Chapter 1
It took almost two months, but I have finally uploaded Chapter 1 of my first multi-chapter Sherlolly fic, Your Worst Fears.
This is a twist on the many
and betterfics where Sherlock gets Molly pregnant. Don’t hate me, but Molly’s heart will break. Yes, I am evil. Sorry.I can’t promise how regular the updates would be. But all seven chapters should be edited and uploaded before Series 3 premieres. Hehe. Also, I am going on vacation in two weeks and I’m not sure If I’ll get to edit the remaining chapters while I’m out of the country. But I’ll definitely try.
I hope you like it, though!
Summary: Post-Reichenbach. Sherlock spends the night with Molly and gets her pregnant. Molly fears he’ll reject her and her baby. What happens when Sherlock finds out?
Pairings: Sherlolly and bits of Worstan (John & Mary)
Rating: M, for smut and swearing
Genre: Romance/Drama
Reviews and constructive criticism are welcome!
When you start, it’s very cold, an impossible task. But then maybe the characters start to take on a little bit of life, or the story takes a turn that you don’t expect… With me that happens a lot because I don’t outline, I just have a vague notion. So it’s always felt like less of a made thing and more of a found thing. That’s exciting. That’s a thrill.
— Stephen King (via writingquotes)
If we don’t risk it all, we may as well not write at all.
— Anne Stuart (via ilovereadingandwriting)
At parties, people usually approach the writer of horror fiction with a mixture of wonder and trepidation. Most of us, you see, look and seem (and ARE) perfectly ordinary. We don’t drown houseguests in the bathtub, torture the children, or sacrifice the cat at midnight inside of a pentagram. There are no locked closets or screams from the cellar. Robert Bloch, author of Psycho, looks like a moderately successful used car salesman. Ray Bradbury bears an uncomfortable resemblance to Charles M. Schulz, creator of Peanuts.
— Stephen King. (via fuckyeah-unclesteve)
15 Writers - The Best Writing Advice They Received
- Alice Kahn: The best writing advice I’ve ever heard: Don’t write like you went to college.
- Andrei Codrescu: Best advice I ever got was from the Romanian poet Nichita Stanescu, who told me in Bucharest, before I emigrated: ‘Learn English. French is dead.’
- Christopher Buckley: The best advice on writing I’ve ever received was from William Zinsser: ‘Be grateful for every word you can cut.’
- Cynthia Ozick: The best advice on writing I’ve ever received is: Write with authority.
- David Guterson: The best advice on writing I’ve ever received is to take it seriously, because to do it well is all-consuming.
- George Plimpton: I think the best advice on writing I’ve received was from John Steinbeck, who suggested that one way to get around writer’s block (which I was suffering hideously at the time) was to pretend to be writing to an aunt, or a girlfriend. I did this, writing to an actress friend I knew, Jean Seberg. The editors of Harpers forgot to take off the salutation and that’s how the article begins in the magazine: Dear Jean….
- James Atlas: The best advice on writing I’ve ever received was from Dwight Macdonald: ‘Everything about the same subject in the same place.’
- Margaret Carlson: Best writing advice I’ve ever received: Sell everything three times.
- Nick Tosches: The best advice on writing I’ve ever received was given to me, like so much else, by Hubert Selby, Jr.: to learn and to know that writing is not an act of the self, except perhaps as exorcism; that, in writing what is worth being written, one serves, as vessel and voice, a power greater than vessel and voice.
- Patsy Garlan: The best advice on writing I’ve ever received is: Don’t answer the phone.
- Peter Mayle: Best advice on writing I’ve ever received: Finish.
- Richard Ford: The best advice on writing I’ve ever received: ‘Don’t have children.’ I gave it to myself.
- Robert Lipsyte: The best advice on writing I’ve ever received was, ‘Rewrite it!’ A lot of editors said that. They were all right. Writing is really rewriting—making the story better, clearer, truer.
- Russell Banks: The best advice on writing I’ve ever received was probably something Ted Solotaroff told me years ago when he was my editor. Going over a manuscript line by line again and again he kept reminding me, ‘Remember, this is your book, not my book. You’re the one who’s going to have to live with it the rest of your life. I might publish 30 or 40 books this year, you’re only going to publish one, and probably the only one you’re going to publish in two or three years.’
- Whitney Balliett: The best advice on writing I’ve ever received is, ‘Knock ‘em dead with that lead sentence.’
From Writers Write
The Five Most Common Fiction Writing Mistakes
I have run my course, Writers Write, for 10 years. I have learned so much from teaching novelists to dream their books into life. After seeing more than 130 graduates published, I have identified these as being the most common mistakes made by debut writers.
- Beginner writers all want to write their life story in the form of a novel. Almost every writer who comes through the school thinks they have a life story so compelling that an editor won’t be able to resist it. Starting a query letter with, ‘This novel is based on my life,’ means the dreaded slush pile! Even if your mother sold you to gypsies to feed her heroin habit, or your father let his father molest you, your story is not unique. I promise you they’ve heard it all. See a therapist. Then write a novel. Or write a memoir. But learn how to do it so that it is not an indulgence. Chris van Wyk’s Shirley, Goodness & Mercy, Alexandra Fuller’s Don’t Let’s Go To The Dogs Tonight and Peter Godwin’s Mukiwa are good examples of memoirs.
- Beginners have no antagonist. If you develop well-constructed protagonists and antagonists, who SPEAK and ARGUE and FIGHT, you will be able to write a book. How can you write a novel, which is generally 360 pages long, without a villain? Who will your hero fight to achieve his goal? The other characters – love interests and friends - are not important for the plot. They are important to show a protagonist’s life, goals, motivations, and feelings without you telling your reader what they are.
- Beginner writers have no plot. Beginner writers either stop at about 20 000 words or carry on until they reach 120 000 or more! Most novels are 80 000 words. Either way, these writers don’t have a plot. Most first time authors ramble on philosophically until they have told the story. They are writing an essay, not a novel. This is called telling. Never tell.
- Beginners do not have enough dialogue. In modern fiction you have to show. The narrator style of writing has all but disappeared. One way to get around this problem is to use dialogue. Modern novels contain 60-70% dialogue. I suggest that writers make friends with this writing tool.
- Beginner writers hang on to an idea for a novel that is no longer popular. All writers have a story from long ago, mostly high school, which they won’t let go. I ask these writers to go to their nearest good bookshop and look at the new releases. I tell them to do some research on Amazon. Would their book fit in either of these places? Family sagas written by authors like Barbara Taylor Bradford in the 1980s do not sell now. Nor do cosy mysteries a la Agatha Christie, or historical adventures like those written by Wilbur Smith – unless you are Wilbur Smith. These writers need to let go, do some research and write fiction that readers want to read, and that publishers will buy.
Why I believe in Writers Write
I have watched people struggle as they decide whether or not they need to attend a writing course. After many rejections and lots of reflection, they join.
Writing teachers and mentors, and writing courses, have been popular for longer than most people know.
- Frank McCourt (Angela’s Ashes) lectures creative writing, as do Wally Lamb (She’s Come Undone) and Janet Fitch (White Oleander). South African writers like Andre Brink and J.M. Coetzee have lectured creative writing.
- When I interviewed Marina Lewycka (A Short History of Tractors in the Ukranian) she revealed that a writing course was her secret to becoming published. Charlaine Harris was discovered on a writing course.
- Writing support groups have also helped many writers. Consider Gertrude Stein, who sacrificed much of her own career to mentor the likes of F Scott Fitzgerald, T S Eliot, Ezra Pound, James Joyce and Ernest Hemingway.
Don’t ever be afraid to learn. The most successful novelists have always looked for help when they’ve needed it.
I hope this helps.
If you want to enrol on Amanda’s course, Writers Write, email neo@writerswrite.co.za
by Amanda Patterson
From Writers Write
You can’t be a serious writer of fiction unless you believe the story you are telling.
— Norman Mailer (via writingquotes)
