A friend of mine and talented writer, Miles Salter, will be launching his new collection of poetry at the City Screen Basement Bar, York. Miles is a York based writer, musician and storyteller and will be joined by Julia Deakin and Mike Barfield, who will also be reading. This is Miles' second collection - All I can say is make sure you've got your socks on and prepare for them to be knocked off! ;] The event is on the 19th of September, tickets are £5 and you can find out more on the City Screen Website.
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Hey folks. So, this weekend I am doing a free promotion of my novel Life Without. If you are yet to give it a read, please go grab a FREE e-copy from Amazon. Why am I doing this? Well partly to get a few more readers for 'Life Without,' to add to the 4000 people who have currently downloaded the book, and secondly to raise my profile a little bit before my next book. The new book is a little way off yet. I'm well past planning and am currently about 10 chapters into the writing, but it's always good to build the hype. So go grab a copy of Life Without and I can promise you equally interesting characters, a more gripping plot and a not so happy ending from the next book. :] Here's a thing that interests me a lot as a writer and something that I am wrestling with in the book I'm currently writing.
How do you make interesting, three-dimensional characters using only language? Characters can make any story either perfect or awful. We all have the characters that we love and I'm sure that you've had that moment when you finish a book and actually feel like you'll miss the characters you have been reading about. It's a strange thing because in truth you haven't met anyone. That character does not exist and unlike television or film you can't even bond with the person playing that character. The characters in fiction are just ink on the page. However, language can be used to create characters far more real than some people seem to be and definitely more believable than the cast of Hollyoaks. In my current novel I am writing about an artist who is obsessive and very introverted; he has some real problems and a serious obsession and love for art. I needed to work out how I was going to get this into the language and make this character come alive. After a long planning process I am now three chapters into the book and David, my character, seems to be taking shape. To get David right I felt I had to get inside his psyche, a bit like a method actor would for a role. So for a start I read several of Freud's articles and cases on obsession and started to work out how this obsessive mental state comes about and works. Once I had some notes I could go back to my story concept and start to see how David's motivations and actions maybe inspired by this condition, what may have caused it and how the action could progress in a way that portrayed his obsessive side. (So that I didn't have to say ' David was obsessive'). I wrote David a back story, which I currently have no plan to feature in the novel itself. This gave me a much better idea of the factors that would later influence David's decision in life (in the novel)-I then briefly reminded myself that David wasn't real so I didn't start talking to him in public and continued!?! Of course I worked up a character sheet, as so many books on writing will tell you to do and this was incredibly useful. I listed David's physical appearance; I listed his achievements; his fears; his goals and motivations, along with anything else that seemed interesting. The next things to do was to work up my second character in a similar way. I felt that it was important to interrupt the flow at this point, so that my secondary characters didn't become a secondary in their own 'realness.' Doing the same sort of character sheet as the one I had done for David and working up these characters relationships and reactions to David's character also really helped flesh out David and his world. After reading a book on method acting, I decided that I should try create some scenes to get into the flow of talking like David, so I wrote up an interview. David is an artist, so I figured he would have to deal with an interview at some point in his career. I wrote this interview to allow me to get into David's mind set and soon the answers (to questions I took from a real interview on-line) really started to flow. I would highly recommend this as an exercise for getting yourself into character. If an interview doesn't work why not try reading a paper and trying to work out what response your character would have to the story you've read, or sit somewhere and people watch and try to think about what you see from your characters perspective. At some point you will have to start creating both the scenarios and your characters reaction to them, so if those reactions are already second nature your writing should flow with far less starring into space, walks round the neighbourhood, tidying your desk, or whatever else you do to avoid writing. Let's not forget, characters are everything! Well its only Monday night and what an exciting week already.
I have been invited to be N.E.David's guest author on his blog. The interview is live now, please go take a look at it and while your their take a look around N.E.David's site, which is great! I've also just submitted to a few well known short story and flash fiction magazines/e-zines and I'm really looking forward to hearing the results. Fingers crossed. And... The excellent copy editor/content editor/proof reader, Amy Eye (who worked on my last book) has just asked me to take part in absolute brilliant project she organises every year. It is an anthology called 'Christmas Lites' which is written every year by a collection of writers and all the money made from the project goes to the National Coalition Against Domestic Violence. I'll be writing a short story for the anthology (which, believe it or not, will come out at xmas). I'm really excited to be part of this. It's not very often you are asked to do something you love and help sudh a great cause. I'll make sure I update you but please look out for it. It's for a great cause. Hey folks,
It's been a while since I actually posted any writing up here, so here's a flash fiction piece - I hope you enjoy! IF ONLY YOU KNEW Ben Warden ‘I’ve got three friends now’ he tells me. ‘But I’ll only have two next week because Charlie is on Holiday.’ I laugh and he smiles. One day he will be distraught when I laugh at him, but for now we are free with each other. ‘Oh really, well done! And where is Charlie going?’ ‘In a car.’ ‘Right. That will be fun!’ ‘And I fell over in the playground and Mrs Frost helped me.’ ‘Oh dear.’ I get the blank look; he’s forgotten the tears already. All he remembers is that the teacher helped him and it seemed important and I'm glad he's told me, because it is. ‘And what else did you do at big school?’ ‘We played and we had to put our coats on and my wellies are too small!’ Judging my parenting already! What a fine teenager you’ll be! ‘I know love, we’ll sort that at the weekend.’ In years to come I will notice that the reports of the school day never feature what he learnt. I’ll be content to hear about his friends and what he had for lunch; I’ll let it slide, but his Father won’t. ‘Mum?’ he says, with concern too big for his tiny face. ‘Can I go back tomorrow?’ ‘Of course you can, love.’ I say. If only you knew, I think. I saw something interesting today, which I thought I should share.
I work in a University for my 'day job'. Today I was helping proof read a module document, which will be part of a new Mass Communications degree. It was really interesting to see that one of the books on the reading list for the module was a CreateSpace produced book (CreateSpace is Amazon's self publishing company). For those of us who are self-published I think this shows a massive change in the perception of the book market. Not all that many years ago people who self-published were assumed to be bad writers who's vanity brought them to self-publish substandard literature. The phrase 'vanity press' was a term used in the publishing sector and self-publishing was looked down on. To see a self-published academic text make a University book list just highlighted to me how much that time has passed! I thought this was a great bit of news to pass to all those fantastic self-published authors and to send a message to the readers out there - buy indie! There is some truely great literature out there and a lot more choice than the average bookstore shelf. This week is York Open Studio, where local artists display their work in various venues in the city and open their studios/homes to the public. It sounds very interesting, so I'm going to have a look round tomorrow.
If your interested take a look at http://www.yorkopenstudios.co.uk Maybe I'll see you there Lynn Russell and Neil Hanson launched their new book 'The Sweethearts' today at York St John University. The book is about women who worked for Rowntree's chocolate factory, in York, from the 1930s-1980s. The couple of chapters read today had me hooked. It's well worth picking up, have a look at: http://www.amazon.co.uk/The-Sweethearts-Lynn-Russell/dp/0007508492/ref=sr_1_2?ie=UTF8&qid=1366218746&sr=8-2&keywords=the+sweethearts
We were also privaledged enough to meet some of the sweethearts themselves today. Amazing ladies, with some amazing stories. You can also buy individual stories from the book as a kindle addition, very neat idea. I think other launches are happening shortly in Waterstones (York Tonight is my first class back on my MA after Easter. Looking forward to getting back at it. This module is about Writers, Readers and Audiences, so no doubt I'll know exactly what you folks want and write a belter of a next novel in 12 weeks time!?! :p
Wish me luck |
AuthorBen Warden - Editor of the #SFFiction project and author of 'Life Without', which made the top ten literary fiction e-books on amazon. Categories
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