There was a good article on The Guardian, ‘Ten rules for writing fiction‘, coming on the back of Elmore Leonard’s 10 Rules of Writing.
The first rule I’m going to make up is; Learn who Elmore Leonard is.
If you’ve done any research into writing tips and rules you’ll have come across quite a few of these, especially the first rule of writing; write.
The best ones are the specific ones; ‘don’t open with the weather’, ‘do not search amazon.co.uk for the book you haven’t written yet’,'avoid detailed descriptions of characters’, ‘Introduce your main characters and themes in the first third of your novel.’ and ‘Do give the work a name as quickly as possible’.
There are some I’ll blatantly ignore; ‘learn poems by heart’, ‘keep a diary’, ‘write slowly and by hand’ and ‘have fun’.
Came across the ‘Power 2010‘ site via ‘Big Brother Watch‘. It previously gathered political ideas from the public, ideas people wanted to see implemented regardless of political leanings, eg. proportional representation, fixed parliament terms, etc. Watch the vid for a better explanation…
Power 2010 are now in Phase 2, which involves everyone voting on their favourite ideas. Power 2010 will then take the 5 most popular and try to convince everyone running for parliament in the General Election this year, to support all 5 reforms.
I’ve just read ‘English Short Stories 1900 to the Present‘ and by far my favourite short story in there was ‘The Intensive Care Unit’ by J.G.Ballard. A great little story where people live in isolation from each other and only have contact via tv screens and cameras, much like webcams basically.
A family eventually meet-up with disastrous consequences, highlighting human nature.
I can’t find a sample online so you’ll have to buy a book yourself, try this one.
With the unveiling of Belle de Jour as a highly educated cancer research doctor the other day, the reactions have varied from surprise that it wasn’t one of the esteemed journalists previous guesses, relief that it’s over and shock that it may glamourise prostitution.
I’m more intrigued about struggling doctorate students having to resort to offering personal services so they may become professionally qualified to look after us in the future.
Apparently this isn’t a new thing, I’m just living in a cave.
So, I’m a citizen of a country that doesn’t fund it’s top students adequately? I kinda knew that.
This week I cracked open a brand new notebook and started writing a few notes which will hopefully grow into my second novel.
I’ve had the beginnings of an idea for a while and kept it on Gas Mark 5 in the back of my mind but thought I should concretely start writing as soon as my New Year hangover subsides.
I’m determined that this second one will benefit from the knowledge and confidence that I’ve been through this process already, mainly, I want to finish the first draft much quicker, hopefully by the end of 2010.
I watched Question Time the other night, the one with the racist nut on it and was struck by a comment from one of the questioners in the audience who seemed to have some kind of beef with some of the language being used.
You can see her full comment for yourself here on YouTube, I’ve linked to the specific bit in the video.
But here’s the text of the bit I’m referring to…
The parties must listen because, one of the things, I am sitting here and every time Jack Straw or somebody or one of the panel says ‘Afro-Caribbean’, I am cringing…Afri-CAN Ca-RIB-bean!
Talk about grammar Nazis! I missed the memo where ‘Afro-Caribbean’ was now an offensive term.
I got my first Asimov magazine and in it there is a novella and a couple novelettes. Not knowing the difference between all these varieties I fired up the old searching fingers and consulted the great internet for some answers.
Dearest Google, what the hell is the difference between a novel, novella, novelette and short story?
Of course Wikipedia came back with a page that nailed the answer by using the definitions as set by the Nebula Awards, which are;
- Novel = a work of 40,000 words or more.
- Novella = between 17,500 and 40,000 words.
- Novelette = between 7,500 and 17,499 words.
- Short Story = under 7,500 words.
So it’s strictly down to word count…or how arsed a writer can be with their idea…I jest!
Are there any other literary forms? Surely a mammoth text of 200,000 words deserves its own category?
Just thought, Flash Fiction is another one. Accordingly, Wikipedia says there is no defined length but normally less than 1,000 words.
Thinking about it, I think 5 seperate forms is enough otherwise it’ll get stupid with every 1,000 words constituting a change of definition for your work.
“What do you think of the novel?”
“Well, first things first, technically it’s a ‘Flash Novella Postcard’.”
“Oh…is that good?”
“O’yes, it’s this year’s ‘Nanonovelette Vignette’.”
“Oh.”
I recently read a good short story in the July/August edition of Interzone Magazine called ‘Silence and Roses’ by Suzanne Palmer but it’s not online anywhere for you to read it. So if you can’t buy that edition of the magazine then visit her website here just to say hello.
Instead, here’s a brilliant short story from the master of robots. I first read it a couple of years ago and it blew my small, little mind to bits. Don’t read the last bit…whatever you do, don’t read the end first.
Apparently it was his favourite short story.
Read it here – ‘The Last Question’ by Isaac Asimov.
There’s been much made about James Murdoch’s speech for the MacTaggart lecture at the Edinburgh TV festival which has led to a #welovethenhs style campaign on Twitter – #welovethebbc – and Robert Peston losing his rag so I can’t add much about James Murdoch blatantly trying to give Sky an easier ride into mindnumbing, advertising driven TV hell.
He consistently calls the BBC ’state-sponsored’ which may partly be true in that they do receive government funds but only a small percentage of total revenue, the licence fee funds the majority of the BBC (about 75%). That means; you, me and all the other licence fee payers fund it, not the government. Saying it’s state-sponsored makes you think it’s a distance relative of North Korean TV. It’s not directly linked to the government, The BBC Trust is the middle man between The BBC and the UK government and UK licence fee payers.
He also said a much greater deregulated media industry without The BBC is giving consumers what they want. A few years back James Murdoch said;
I’ve nearly finished the 4th draft of my novel ‘Railroaded’, in it a character has a touch of the runs or ‘diarrhea’. Now my middle school spelling tests have deserted me and I spelt it so badly that the Word spell check had no idea what word I was trying to spell so couldn’t offer me the correct version.
I went online to search out the correct spelling and found it here at Dictionary.com.
diarrhea
–noun Pathology. an intestinal disorder characterized by abnormal frequency and fluidity of fecal evacuations.
I just love the explanation, especially the last bit; fecal evacuations.
Usually dictionary definitions offer such plain, logical descriptions without evoking any emotion or human connection to the word in hand.
This definition not only gives you the meaning but brings you back to a time when you gripped the porcelain throne, straining for one last evacuation hoping it was the last as your ringer couldn’t take anymore.
I’m sure Samuel Johnson would be satisfied with this great definition for an English word. I know I am.
