I'll tell you a little story: a few years ago, I made contact with author's agency Christopher Little. They are famous for a certain franchise, which we'll get to in a bit, but the exciting thing about this was that THEY had APPROACHED me, not the other way around. For anyone who has been through the great ego-bursting gauntlet that is agent-scouting, you'll know that having the process reversed is a very rare and incredible opportunity.
Trembling with anticipation, I submitted the opening three chapters of 'Tick', which at the time looked quite different to what it is now, but with the spine of the story essentially the same. The letter that came back from Christopher Little Agency was one of the most disappointing reads I have ever read, and that is saying something as someone who has read Matthew Reilly. Firstly - and I swear I do not say this out of bitterness - it was a load of garbled nonsense, and sounded a lot like a tired and stressed office worker offloading their frustrations on me, ones that weren't necessarily my fault. It also didn't make itself clear if it were a rejection letter or not. So far, so unprofessional. But what was this poor agent so frustrated about? Well, if you've read Tick, you'll know that it's hardly burst-out-of-the-gate, high octane reading. Tick certainly has action-packed moments, but an action novel it is not. I like to think of Tick as being a story that unfolds itself in its own time, at exactly the pace it needs to. But this agent was having none of that. She made it clear to me that she was sick of reading the same old three chapters over and over again, that it was all boring and same-old, and she demanded action, incident and drama in those opening chapters to really seize the readers by the throat and pull them into the world of the novel, kicking and screaming. I'm paraphrasing here, admittedly, but this was the gist of the letter. I did send in a second sample of a different novel to Christopher Little which had all that the agent desired and more. I never heard back from her: she must've spontaneously combusted out of boredom or something. But what made this all especially disappointing was that Christopher Little is the agency that picked up Harry Potter. Yes, that series that was rejected by so many agencies was seen for what it truly was by Christopher Little. And last time I checked, Harry Potter does not burst out of the gate with all plot-guns blazing. On the contrary, Harry Potter gives the recommended guidelines the middle finger, because it is a long and prolonged setup the reader goes through with the Dursleys at Privet Drive before the all importing inciting incident with Hagrid. Now look, I am not saying that novels that do unleash an all manner of action and incident on the reader cannot be good - of course they can. One of my favorite trilogies, The Bartimaeus Trilogy by Jonathan Stroud, starts exactly this way (by the second chapter anyway). What I am saying is that these kind of big-opener books stand no more chance of being good than their slow-burner counterparts. But therein lies the rub: the agents, the keeper of the keys for aspiring novelists everywhere, read the opening chapters of unpublished novels as a day job. They have what is affectionately called the 'slush pile', a stack of unsolicited manuscripts that turn up unannounced on their doorstep daily: huge stacks of paper looking for a bookshelf. Agents do have my sympathy in that regard. But the problem with this system is that agents inevitably get desensitized to novels where the true worth may not be apparent in the opening few pages. And why would they? That is all they have access to, and they have to plough through a faceless horde of opening chapters all the time. But just because that poor agent at Christopher Little has my sympathy doesn't mean I like it. So many good, great, and potentially important novels of our generation lie stranded at the bottom of a shredder simply because they couldn't hook an agent suffering from chronic first-chapter fatigue. And so began this race to supercharge the opening pages, to seize the attention of the agent by any means necessary, even if it meant sacrificing the integrity and structure of the novel. Some results have been hilarious, some tragic, some both: I have read a few and I will never forget one shining example where the novel begins with a car speeding down a highway in the rain, screeching to a halt at the sight of a cloaked figure on the road, the cloaked man slamming a fist through the window of the car and strangling the driver to death. Fade to black. Exciting, huh? Well, cue two chapters of a long conversation in a café immediately after that. It's sad, because it was obvious that this author had received feedback from an agent that was similar to what I had received and taken it too literally, or worse still (and more likely) other budding authors said to him: "better make that opening more exciting, to grab the attention." Do you see what I'm getting at here? What's disturbing is that, when referring to grabbing attention, it often means not just of the readers but also the agents. Agents who need nothing short of a supernova on the page to even grab their eye for a moment. Now look, I'm not saying that seizing the attention is a bad thing - we talked at length about the stasis and trigger in an earlier post - you absolutely should. But the problem with our friend here is in the chapter-straddling coffee chat. He needs to carefully rethink the beginning as a whole so that it works within the frame of the book from beginning to end. The opening is, along with the climax and closing, one of the most important and crucial moments in your novel, and it needs to work in a way that makes sense by the time the reader closes your novel. A well-thought-out novel is the type which you pick up a second time and, upon reading again, seems like a completely different novel because you as a reader can see all the carefully laid out hints, knowing glances and secrets, and you can see how intricately it all fits together. What you don't want is to shoehorn an ill-fitting sugar rush of a start into your novel that has little to no bearing or relation in plot or tone for the whole novel. It looks cheap and desperate. And even when done well, with some novels that kind of opening simply doesn't work at all. Because seizing attention doesn't always equal a Michael Bay-esque opener. Far from it. My tip? Start with a question. Ask a question of the reader immediately, one which they will want to read on to find the answer. In 'Tick', this happens in the first paragraph, which is "Why does this guy have his name on a Tub Map where a station should be?" and so more questions should arise as the reader goes on, so that there's always something to keep the reader hooked and intrigued as they progress deeper into the novel. Far better to coax your reader into the rabbit hole with mystery and intrigue than to shove them into it. And do not fear the quiet, calm moments of your book. It's not the same as boring when done right. Some of my favourite moments in 'Tick', both when I wrote it and when I read it back to myself, are some of the quiet moments when Tom simply sits, and just...is. These aren't just holes in the pacing or character development here, but vital moments of introspection. And moreover, they are just simply...relaxing. I take a lot of pride in that, and the fact that I feel I can trust my readers to not need an adrenaline rush on every page. Hopefully, one day, someone else up high will notice that too, and you will have your Christopher Little moment...of the good kind.
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The book is the one of the oldest forms of tangible entertainment out there. In fact, you could even say that the book is a direct result of the original form of entertainment – spoken word – being exposed to that little thing called technology.
It may seem strange to say it, but once upon a time, the book used to be a fine piece of cutting-edge tech. Suddenly, when humans learned how to slice trees really thinly and then put those thin slices back together again, humanity took huge leaps forward. Was it humanity’s first technological revolution? Perhaps, but in the midst of the mad rush to get all of these tales and facts spoken and whispered down the ages, the modern book was born. And so it has stayed that way, pretty much unchanged. A paperback from your bricks-and-mortar bookshop today doesn’t look wildly different from how it would have done had it been printed hundreds of years ago. But the process of how that book was put together is a completely different landscape now. Similar to movies, the final product may be slicker and crisper than a few decades before, but when it comes to the production stage, the creator has at their fingertips more options and flexibility than ever before. Once again, we find ourselves in the midst of another technology revolution, one that we must navigate until it all evens out. Because, as it stands, the luddites still awkwardly rub shoulders with the pioneers. There are authors out there who stick to good old pen and paper, from planning to writing, leaving the creating of the digital manuscript to their poor editor. Even some of the old guard who have begrudgingly moved on still stick to an outmoded fashion: George R.R. Martin famously does all of his writing on a Wordstar 4.0. So next time you’re enjoying an adventure in Westeros, remember it all started in a wall of text that looks like DOS. There’s no doubting that computers now offer a huge number of helpful tools to the aspiring writer, including ones we take for granted. The simple act of correcting mistakes, for example. In the days of the typewriter, that meant a laborious process of correction fluid, realigning the paper, or starting the sheet all over again. Now, almost all word processing programs can spot mistakes before even you’ve seen them, and correcting them is as simple as two clicks. Creatively, the new technology revolution has opened up exciting new ways to be inspired and express that inspiration, as well. It is possible to type up drafts and ideas anywhere, with the aid of a Smartphone or tablet. Now we can draw instant inspiration and convert it to word form almost instantly– sitting, standing or lying down. It is also easier than ever before to weave intricate plot twists and important details into your novel. Say, for example, you get to a point in your book where your protagonist is literally checkmated. They have no way out of a dire situation, and you are therefore stuck too, with no way to get her out of danger without resorting to a deus ex machina. But now, with the power of the word processor, it is easy to plant that secret key three chapters back or to scatter subtle reminders here and there that your character has a special skill that is just tailor made for escaping these sort of situations. So, when used right, technology can be a great help to the author in easing some of the busywork and unleashing the creativity in making a barnstorming story. But, as Orson Welles said, “The absence of limitations is the enemy of art.” The fact that we can write wherever, whenever and however we want can breed laziness. Looking back on that retroactive threading of a plot twist into a novel, yes, when done well it can look as if it was meant to be there all along. But that’s the point: it should have been there all along in the place. The fact that the author in this situation had to reverse engineer his way out of the situation is simply poor practice, and probably points to the additional hints and reminders being not-so-subtle, either. Having your main character make a daring leap from a five-storey building and land safely because it was mentioned ten chapters ago that she trained as a stunt double and then that fact was never mentioned again just looks clunky and drags your novel down. Likewise, no matter how good technology gets, there will never be anything quite like grabbing some sheathes of blank paper, a pencil and just thrashing out some insane new ideas until your kitchen looks like something from A Beautiful Mind. A word processor is still rigid, and it is prone to eyestrain after a while. And, as any seasoned author who has edited their own book will tell you, there is just something about seeing your own work in print that makes it look different, as well. Mistakes that you never spotted on the screen despite having read that sentence fifteen times will leap out at you on the real page. And let’s be honest, when all is said in done we want to our book in a real, physical form, do we not? Emailing an e-book will never quite be the same as cracking the spine and running a thumb through real pages, especially when you wrote it. So for new authors, the wealth of options available for planning and writing can be pretty overwhelming. For first time writers, I recommend trying multiple methods simultaneously, and seeing which method you gravitate towards. Even then, it may depend on your mood. For that, you will probably need to discipline yourself – there’s a lot to be said for consistency of format – but you may want to consider the idea of using a different method for different projects. A certain approach can produce a very different result from another, with different feels in the tone. See which one suits your voice best. And if you’re reading this on a Smartphone up a mountain, you could try all of this right now! Oh what a world we live in, eh? Look, I will be straight with you: between plot and characters, I will always choose plot. Perhaps you have heard stories described as being plot-driven or character-driven. Plot-driven stories are built around events, and characters serve as a vehicle to experience those events. Character-driven stories are driven by characters' actions and interactions, with the plot being informed by this. There are good and bad examples of both. My preference for plot-driven stories is merely taste (both in writing and reading), though I can certainly appreciate well-told character stories (the Song of Ice and Fire series by George RR Martin is an excellent example of this), and of course plot-driven stories can have well built characters and vice versa. So, which is your style? Certainly, your reading habits can dictate your preference for 'PS' or 'CS', but not always, and it's not always easy to tell what stories are what type because as mentioned it is very possible to have both engaging characters and drama. The telltale signs may be your planning stages. How do you put your stories together? Writers inspired by plot tend to see and think their stories as an order of events, and can visualize their story in a clear and logical structure with escalating action and/or tension. Writers inspired by character see the planning stage as less of a structuring phase and more of an intuitive exploration of the principal characters, learning their personalities and envisioning them in certain scenarios, most importantly with each other and engineering conflict of interest between the two. From here the story grows from this conflict. Since we are focusing on characters for now, I will stick to character-related advice, or more importantly how to not lose sight of your characters when you are building your plot. Because, from past experience, I have suffered when I get so engrossed in world-building and imagining epic set pieces that characters that will inevitably inhabit that world will seem flat and helpless, as if they are on rails through the plot - because they are. Now, there is nothing wrong with a rollercoaster ride novel with buckets of fun and action - in fact it should be encouraged - but it is certainly better to have characters in that novel that make the ride all the more meaningful and memorable. One of my favorite little tips is to insert a character that will be deliberately ill-suited to the plot you have created. So you're going to send your protagonist on an epic journey spanning the stars? Great! Why not make your protagonist an anti-social homebody? Or why not make your main character a blundering buffoon with a heart of gold in that crime noir novel of yours? Are they going to be out of place at first? You betcha! This allows scope for character growth and for tension with the other, more well-suited cast of characters. I'm painting in broad strokes of course: it's not just about mismatching sterotypes to stories. Bascially, if you have a protagonist who is already perfectly equipped to deal with the events they will face, then what's the point? Take a look at what your novel is demanding of your protagonist, and make absolutely sure that they don't have the means to do that at first. The satisfaction of reading comes not from experiencing the set pieces themselves but seeing your protagonist fight, fail, retreat, become wiser, and return again with scars but more determined, more equipped to overcome. A nice way to think of how your novel will impact your reader is that the story matters during the act of reading, but it's the chracters that stay with you long after the back cover is shut or the credits roll. So if you have a plot-driven story, make sure your characters get to stand out and make their impact. If done right, what they have to say will stay with your readers for a lot longer. |
Off the ShelfHere I share my ideas, musings and advice on the writing process. I also analyse some of my own writing for examples to show how I work. ShowcaseHere I will show off of some of my favorite good and great stories, gushing lovingly over why I adore them and why you should too. I will also show you the other side of the spectrum: bad examples of stories and what we can learn from them.
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