At the Chandler’s Ford library today I attended an author talk by Richard Hardie: “So you want to be an author?”.
Richard is a Chandler’s Ford author who has written two books in the Temporal Detective Agency series – Leap of Faith and Trouble in Mind. He talked to us about being a writer and good writing tips.
One thing which stuck out to me as someone who wants to have a future in writing is how hard it is to have a book published. Richard explained that it is very hard to have a book published without an agent, and getting an agent is even harder. It is because the agents get tons of manuscripts every day and they only read the full manuscript (which are the first three chapters of the book) if they are interested in the first line of the synopsis. It is a very difficult process.
A very important writing tip I learnt was GOWTS– Get On With The Story. This was a point which Richard talked about in regard to the later Harry Potter books, where the books had too many adjectives, descriptions, rambling dialogue and not enough story.
Richard thought that a typical book should be about 200-300 pages long if the author wants it published easily, as the printing cost and distribution will be cheaper. When a book series is established, the books can then get longer like with Harry Potter.
Another important writing tip was creating the characters and making them complex, before a story should be written around them. Without compelling characters, a book will suffer as the reader cannot get invested in the story as they have no interest in the characters. The rule of WWWWWH (Who, What, Where, When, Why and How) is very vital to a good story, with Why being the most important part of writing a story, as without establishing the background of a story the whole plot becomes irrelevant.
Those were the two most important aspects of writing that I learnt from today. I got both books signed and I will start reading them soon. I learnt a lot about writing and tips on how to write better stories. Thank you Richard.
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Glad the library events went well. Great support for local author and local library so win-win situation! A really great story for me has characters you root for and villains you want to see get their just desserts. For that to happen, the characters have to be complex, to have needs and wants. The kiss of death to any story is to have cardboard cut out characters. I’ve never understood the plot versus character debate that often happens in writing circle. You need both!
You’re right, Allison. Characters in a book need to be 3D and completely believable.
Sorry I missed your event, Richard. It has inspired at least one person.
Some times I have read books where none of the characters is at all likeable. After a while I give up because I do not care what happens to them. Then I feel guilty for not persevering. There are plenty more books however.
I recall one piece of advice of Stephen King is to banish all words ending in …ly (adverbs).
The average self published book has over 7000 adverbs, Mike, and about the same in adjectives. Both are mostly unnecessary if the narrative is written well.
I’ve seen another source (I forgot where) that also advocates the omission of adverbs.
At secondary school level, we don’t teach refined language.
If you ask a 16-year-old pupil not to use adjectives, adverbs, they will not get an A (or B, or C) in GCSE.
I remember at university, I read The Elements of Style by Strunk and White. This little language ‘Bible’ advised against adjectives and adverb.
Simply do not use them, they say: “Write with nouns and verbs, not with adjectives and adverbs” (The Elements of Style, p. 71).
Professor Pullum had a brilliant response in this post on Language Log: The blowing of Strunk and White’s rules off. White himself couldn’t stick to this rule. Professor Pullum said: “…they demonstrate that their advice is crappy whenever they write, because they are utterly unable to follow their own rules, even on a bet.”
The point about having characters developed before you start writing is a good one. When I was about your age I saw an author who explained that he created a index card for every character (this was way before computers). You need to know about the characters, their history, likes and dislikes, etc. so that you can imagine how they would react in the situations that you put them in.
Ruby, yes I remember index cards! Do students today still use them? Whenever I see boxes of index cards in stationery shops I often wonder who is buying them. I have never seen anyone purchasing index cards. Do students still revise using index cards (like we used to do)?
Recently I asked a teacher for a reference book for Ben, and she asked me to download this app or that app, and “no need to buy books as kids won’t read them. It’s wasting your money.” Revision (if a child does) seems to be mainly online instead of using books and using one’s pen to jot down notes. I told the teacher that we don’t own a smart phone (and my son doesn’t own a mobile phone still). It seems that I may be a bit behind mobile technology. Books and index cards seem to be ‘out’. Perhaps I ought to get a smart phone.
Kindles are mostly owned by adults, who think they’re mostly owned by kids. In fact most kids love the feel of owning a books and I hope that continues for many years to come!
I don’t own a smart phone either – and have no plans to get one. Last weekend on a walk when we found ourselves “not where we expected” I found the old-fashioned method of “asking a passer-by for directions” far quicker (and pleasant) than googlemaps on a smart phone!
Both sessions at the library were fantastic. The enthusiasm for being an author and for books was very apparent and to be honest, I can’t wait to do it again some day!
Terry Pratchett once told me (name dropper) that he has a biography for every one of the characters in his books…. to the extent that they become old friends. The major characters have 50 plus pages covering their lives, including aspects that will never appear in a book, but to Terry they were important facts to make the characters more real. That comes across to his readers.
Thanks to everyone who came along and making it such a success.