Archive for the ‘writing’ Category

Posted on June 15, 2010 - by MG

Dreaming up a bestseller

At a story-building workshop I was running at Southend Girls High School recently, a student asked me if I believed that Stephenie Meyer really did write Twilight because of a dream of a sparkly vampire.

I didn’t get to answer the question in depth because we were under pressure to finish the story before the lesson period ended, so I simply said that yes, I believed it. What I didn’t say was that there’s nothing quite like a dream to power a story.

Dreams dredge up thoughts and feelings from the deepest, darkest parts of our psyche. They speak to us in the language of symbols. Most people don’t understand the significance of these symbols. It’s hard even for a psychoanalyst to interpret the symbols, without first understanding the particular viewpoint or mental landscape of the dreamer.

So a sparkly, beautiful male vampire means something to Stephenie, something that it might not mean to anyone else. That image thrown up by a dream, which became incorporated into the first Twilight novel, had a hold on her. I’m no expert on psychoanalysis so I don’t know what it meant within her own context.
But we can guess that it meant something pretty deep. It drove an author through a series of gripping novels that captured the imagination of millions, which suggests that it was powerful stuff.

The wider question is this: where do writers’ ideas come from? The answer seems to be that some, you work for whilst others, like the (day?) dreams of Edward Cullen or Harry Potter, pop into your head.

The pop-in idea is a frequent visitor to the writer of fiction, the trick may be an ability to recognise which ones come from somewhere deep enough to sustain a novel or book series.

The deeper the better, really. Like the sludge of a riverbed, the depths of a writer’s psyche are the richest in story-building nutrients.

At another school visit to Larkmead School in Abingdon, a boy asked me why I’d written a book series about code-cracking. It was an understandable question given that I’d just led a code-cracking workshop with about 90 year 12-14 year olds. I told him that I’d realised whilst reading The Da Vinci Code in 2004 that having the hero a puzzle to solve was one good way to drive the narrative. Especially for readers who aren’t so keen, or less able to accessing the emotional drive of the story.So that’s why, rather than write a simple coming-of-age story, which is what  essentially is, I thought to throw in some puzzles.

In fact the central idea for Joshua came from a fear that strongly coloured my own teenage years: a fear of apocalypse – nuclear holocaust. It was the 1980s, the Cold War was still very much in play: we lived quite consciously in the shadow of the 4-minute warning of doom.

I didn’t need a dream to dredge this up. It was something that was obvious to me at the time and long into my 20s.  So when it occurred to me to write an adventure story about a teenager trying to prevent a global catastrophe at the end of 2012, I knew well what fertile personal territory I was tackling.

Graham Greene once said that a writer’s experience of life by the age of 20 will provide all the necessary material for their writing. So maybe we’re all writing from our youthful feelings and memories. But a subject worthy of a children’s book should also be something that was important to us as children and not merely as adults remembering.

A dream can be like a beacon showing us the way back to the hopes and fears of our youth. Any writer lucky enough to have such a dream should definitely take notice.

Posted on April 24, 2010 - by MG

Motivating your characters – the key to success? (ZERO MOMENT blog tour #7)

The Zero Moment blog tour continues…and M is for Motivating your Characters.

This time it’s a rare post about the process of writing, from me. The reason I don’t blog more about writing is, well, others do it so well. It seems a little superfluous to add any more!

However, since I’m actually struggling with plotting now, it’s a timely point for me to consider the aspect of writing that I think is maybe the most important part of the process, which is the motivation of the characters.

I discovered the importance of this element by accident, while writing ZERO MOMENT. The plot fell into place easier than either the plots for INVISIBLE CITY or ICE SHOCK, mainly because Josh’s motivation was so much simpler to define. It made me realise that where I’d really had to think hard in plotting the first two, was in driving Josh.

Novels tend to succeed if they are about people doing extraordinary things; dangerous either to their health or to their sanity. As readers we like to see characters playing a high-stakes game. It doesn’t have to be physical; simply telling the guy you totally adore can be a very risky game – if the story have been set up properly.

The problem is, real people prefer not to take insane risks. Normal people tend to say ‘travel around the world, risk life and limb to find lost treasure? Hmm. Maybe I’ll stay home.’

Aristotle advises authors to write characters who are as believable as possible (more on Aristotle in the next stop on the tour.) Yet we want them to take crazy risks. The author’s job is simple (hah!) – to make those awful risks seem reasonable, achievable and well worth taking. Whilst creating massive tension in the reader’s mind, anxiety about the dangers.

The first novel I wrote (unpublished, but adapted as an Alternate Reality Game – THE DESCENDANT) used the simplest technique I know: the gun at the back. Create a threat which will force your protagonist to move in the direction you want. Every time the pace falters, step up the level of threat.

You could use blackmail, a hit guy on your trail, a deadly disease. The key is that the protagonist himself must be in danger, and will take action simply to relieve the danger.

It’s what screenwriters refer to as a ‘negative driver’. Crude but effective. In the long run, less emotionally satisfying perhaps? After all – even an animal will take action to get out of danger.

More difficult is the ‘positive driver’, where the protagonist takes action and deliberately puts themselves in harm’s way to achieve a positive outcome, not merely to evade a direct threat.

It’s more difficult because real people don’t take insane risks…and whatever the author tries to tell us, as readers we know this on a instinctive level.

And in any argument between instinct and reason, there can be no winner.

Then – if things weren’t already complicated enough – the author needs to balance the internal and external motivation. Because it’s a thin, unsatifying plot where the character operates only on one level. James Bond wants to achieve his mission because it’s his job is trumped by James Bond wants to achieve his mission because it’s crucial to him getting over the death of his wife.

So – motivation can be positive or negative but it must be strong and it must be believable. (Believable is the hard part.) For depth, motivation must comprise two parts – the external desire (e.g. complete the dangerous mission) and the internal desire (e.g. justify the otherwise pointless death of someone who failed first time).

The final thing to remember is that as well as the overarching motivation that should drive the entire novel, we also need mini-motivations which drive sequences of scenes.

These mini-motivations can change, but should be clearly developed and the reader should be aware of the changing stakes and the new plan. When I say they can change, I mean that the protagonist can set out to do one thing, and then realise that the plan won’t work, and therefore change plans. Or they can overcome one challenge and then encounter another.

One challenge after another can make for a very linear, predictable read where the reader can sense the machine in the story. So it helps to layer the challenges – seed the next before the current challenge is completed.

If at any stage the reader thinks – Hang on. No sane person would do that – or even – this character wouldn’t do that then you have a big problem. The plot may fall apart. The reader may still finish the book, but deep down they’ll know that you drove them through part of the process and they might not like you for it.

Which is why I plot beforehand and at every stage I try hard to focus on this question – why is the protagonist doing this?

And the answer had better be a heck of a lot more persuasive than ’because I need him to get from A to B’…

Someone kidnaps the people Josh most cares about and it is somehow his fault, so Josh must rescue them or else face his own cowardice for the rest of his life - turned out to be the simplest and strongest motivation I had ever been able to find in a plot. Which is why ZERO MOMENT was so much easier to write!

Next on the  Zero Moment blog tour: E is for Everything I Know About Plotting I Learned From Aristotle at myfavouritebooks.blogspot.com (28 April)

Posted on March 6, 2010 - by MG

World Book Week Diary

Last year, we launched ICE SHOCK on World Book Day, at St Gregory the Great School in Oxford. This year I set off to do a mini-tour of schools in the South of England.

World Book Day is the one thing guaranteed to get us lazy authors out of bed early. Even Robert Muchamore tweeted in (mock) anguish “School event in High Wycombe tomorrow. I’ve got to get up at 7am. The HORROR!”

Started off at D’Overbroecks College in Oxford, speaking to the sixth-form English Lit and Communication& Culture students. After spending the afternoon tailoring my author presentation to their sophisticated 6th form ears, I accidentally ran the normal Powerpoint. Somehow we still ended up talking about Aristotle.

The next day, a launch party at Blackwell’s Oxford for my friend Tim Pears’s new novel, Landed, which has already had bags of terrific reviews.

For the last part of the week it was on to Canterbury and then Worcester to visit two more schools. Lots of fun at Simon Langton Grammar in Canterbury talking to hundreds of boys about Joshua Files. And a special privilege of spending time with the school’s writer’s group, including three young men who’ve written a 108,000 word dark fantasy novel. Very impressive INDEED.

At Christopher Whitehead Language College in Worcester I hung out over lunch with the student librarians and we talked about how to construct a story. Brilliant suggestions from the kids who created a thrilling storyline for a supernatural adventure about a girl who has to rescue her mother…from Hell!

A special thanks to the kids who patiently posed with me for the photographer from the Worcester Gazette!

And to the wonderful librarians Teresa (Simon Langton Grammar, Canterbury) and Liane and Clare (Christopher Whitehead, Worcester) for all their work to encourage and develop readers and for inviting me to your schools!

Finally, a big thanks to the lovely Punjabi students that I met on the train to Canterbury. I left my coat-belt on the train, after enjoying a nice chat with the boys. On the train back to London at the end of the day, the guys were there again. When they heard I’d lost my belt, one of them insisted on giving me his. Then spent the rest of the trip determinedly making a hole in the thick leather so that it would fit me. Thank goodness for the belt or I’d have frozen solid on the walk home!

Best question of the week: Is fiction getting too ‘fast’ and are we losing something valuable in the drive to make story openings vault us directly into action.

Posted on February 27, 2010 - by MG

Castaway!

With lovely Sylvia Vetta in the Summertown Wine Cafe.

I first met Sylvia last year at an event I did for the Oxford Literary Festival Fringe, a writer’s workshop at Blackwells (where most of the lit fest fringe events run). Sylvia is a local journalist and the former owner of The Jam Factory, an antiques centre that had cult status in Oxford for most of my years here, but which closed a few years ago when the neighbourhood was yuppified.

Sylvia writes the monthly ‘Castaway’ article in the Oxford Times limited edition magazine, a glossy special. She interviews local authors, artists, businesspeople, academics etc, through questioning them about their favourite art, antiquarian books and antiques.

And in June, Sylvia’s article will feature me!

I don’t think of myself as an art lover, or collector of antiques etc. Frankly I’m too broke, what with the exorbitant cost of visiting all the foreign lands to research Joshua, as well as my exotically foreign family. (I’m referring to the ones who live in Australia and Switzerland by choice, not the Mexicans…)

Luckily Sylvia allows you any object you desire, since it’s mere fantasy. Even the Elgin Marbles, if I wanted them, hah take that, British Museum! In fact, I did lust after one object in the BM…

When the article is published I’ll let you know. The interview, which we did in the Summertown Wine cafe, is accompanied by images from a photoshoot that is yet to be arranged. I’ve asked to be photographed in an huge leather-upholstered Jakobsen Egg chair in St Catz, reading an Uncle Scrooge McDuck comic.

MG Harris at the Kennington Free Literary festival

If you’re Oxfordshire-based and would like the chance to see me or other local authors talk in a mini literary festival, Sylvia also runs the Kennington Free Literary festival in Kennington, Oxon, on Saturday 24th April. Tickets are free, with a £2 booking charge if you want to guarantee a seat. But even booking is free for children – so come on down to listen to the MG Harris author talk!

Booking form for Kennington Free Literary festival.

Full colour brochure for Kenningtom Free Literary festival.

Posted on January 18, 2010 - by MG

Cupcakes, waiting and writing Secret New Things

Two weeks to go until ZERO MOMENT is officially published.

Except that, as several readers have already pointed out to me, ZERO MOMENT is now being sold on Amazon.co.uk, Tesco, and Waterstones (in the stores too). Some readers have already bought it, read it and sent me lovely comments – thank you!

(Would be nice if you would put nice comments on Amazon too, that would be RIGHT lovely.)

Meanwhile what does an author do in the run-up period?

1. Plan a ZERO MOMENT launch party. It’s back to Blackwell’s in Oxford, but with more guests and more cakes. I am planning a marathon cupcakes making session, and am choosing four different types to make. Might do a poll, heh heh.

2. Gloatathon! Tracking the progress of Joshua as it starts getting published around the world. The Vietnamese edition of INVISIBLE CITY made their top ten paperback list, according to one blog. Nice reviews are appearing on blogs about the Indonesian and Spanish editions. Lovely, kind bloggers!

ICE SHOCK, which isn’t yet published in the USA, made a Top 12 Young Adult Books of 2009 on a US book blog, Semicolon. (And was also nominated for a Cybil – Middle Grade Fiction Award.)

I have exactly the same attitude to gloating about nice reviews as I once had to good results with my lab experiments. Celebrate them while you can! One day the reviews (or results) will not be so good…

3. Plan the Krispy Kreme FaceBook party. You need to be on the Joshua Files FaceBook Group to come to this, but it would be lovely to see some of the Oxford-based Joshua readers.

4. Meet Lovely Editor to discuss her notes for the manuscript of Joshua #4, DARK PARALLEL. Yes! It’s written and I am now poised, poised I tell you, to move to a second draft.

5. Pitch Quite Secret New Thing (hereafter QSNT) and Top Secret New Thing That I Only Just Thought Of In December But Which Is A Sort Of Major Rewrite Of Jaguar’s Realm (hereafter Top Secret New Thing or TSNT for short). Where am I on this? I have the opening chapters of QSNT which I am rewriting with suggestions from Mr Agent and today I wrote chapter 3 of TSNT.

I don’t know what I will write next! The new MD of Scholastic Children’s Book’s will soon hear both ideas…and decide: which one is best? Or at least, which one is best, next.

So as you see I have been busy. Don’t forget to join the Joshua Files FaceBook Group!