Show don’t tell…..

January 25th, 2012

Although ‘show, don’t tell’ is one of the most basic pieces of writing advice, even the most experienced writers can sometimes fall into the ‘telling’ trap. Yesterday @JoannaCannon tweeted a piece with great insight in an interview with SJ Watson (Before I Go To Sleep) on the Tesco bookblog (http://booksblog.tesco.com/2012/01/s-j-watson-your-questions-his-answers/). He said that when describing a bathroom, we don’t need to describe the colour of the tiles, the bathmat, the basin etcetera, because all bathrooms have those. We just need to pick out the details that make it different: hairs on the soap or peeling linoleum. The reader will then know what sort of a bathroom it is. Because I also write books on interiors (as Alexandra Campbell), I lean towards over-describing in novels: the wallpaper, the type of carpet, even the actual name of the paint, so I shall take his point.

I read the piece the day after returning from a Living Architecture weekend. Living Architecture (www.Living-Architecture.co.uk) is a charity set up to give us the experience of living in cutting edge architecture for a week or a weekend. They build outstandingly modern and exciting holiday homes in stunning locations and equip them beautifully, so we can all experience a weekend of living differently. The first time I tried it I was so inspired that I made their Shingle House at Dungeness the final scene for The Empty Nesters, because The Empty Nesters is also about learning to live differently.

Living Architecture’s design certainly stimulated conversation. We loved most things, but found ourselves more than usually critical about anything we didn’t like (for the men, the baths in bedrooms). We decided that this was the point: making you think about why you live as you do. However, we did feel like saying ‘show, don’t tell’ when we found they had also supplied a booklet with conversation topics, along with suggestions as to when to raise them. Advising us to ‘try to avoid banalities’, there were topics for breakfast, lunch, tea, etc. These included ‘is justice more important than forgiveness?’ and ‘what qualities do you most admire and who has them?’ While I think these are genuinely interesting questions, I know very intelligent, articulate, non-banal people who would like to hit me over the head with a frying pan if I asked them at breakfast.

I think Living Architecture already ‘show rather than tell’ with their buildings, and probably don’t need to add to it, but if they do, perhaps a booklet is too didactic. Maybe ask ‘Is Forgiveness more important than Justice?’ on coffee mugs, inscribed into a shower screen or along a garden bench, for example? You might open a cupboard door in search of a coffee pot and find a question asking you about the difference between banality and politeness, for example. I’d also like some interactivity: maybe a whiteboard or guest book where groups could leave a philosophical question for the next group.

It certainly made me think about ‘show, don’t tell’. I looked at what I’d been writing beforehand and had to scrap it all. Have you any advice on ‘show, don’t tell’?

Posted in: From the Author by Nina Bell on January 25th, 2012
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Writing advice…

January 16th, 2012

Recently someone sent me a sample of a friend’s work (I shall call her To Be Published or TBP). I also picked up on a Twitter exchange between agent Carole Blake (@caroleagent) and a would-be writer, who didn’t like Carole’s email rejection being accompanied by the suggestion that she read her book ‘From Pitch to Publication’. She dismissed the email as a book puff. However FPTP is an invaluable distillation of all Carole’s years as an agent.

Indeed, I recommended it to TBP. Like most authors, I don’t usually read unpublished work because I don’t feel qualified to say what is and isn’t publishable. I’m not an editor or an agent. And I don’t have an ‘open sesame’ to the publishing world. All I can do is suggest things that helped me or would have helped me if I’d known about them earlier. This advice would be the same whether I’ve read your work or not.

I sent TBP a reading list:’From Pitch to Publication’, Stephen King’s ‘On Writing’, Robert McKee’s ‘Story’, Jane Wenham-Jones’ ‘Wanna Be A Writer?’ and ‘Wanna Be a Writer We’ve Heard of?’(good if you’re already published, too) and ‘How NOT to Write a Novel’ by Newman & Mittelmark. I particularly like this last one because it doesnt tell you how to write, it just tells you the pitfalls to avoid. And it’s funny.

I also suggested the Arvon Foundation (www.arvonfoundation.org), The Faber Academy (www.faberacademy.co.uk. Most famous graduate: SJ Watson/ Before I Go To Sleep), the self-publishing author website Authonomy (www.authonomy.com), the Romantic Novelists Association New Writers Scheme (www.rna-org) and going on Twitter (www.Twitter.com).

Being on Twitter is like having a publishing magazine delivered to your door every day (see my ‘Twitter For Authors’ post on this website). Last week’s links included the Guardian Culture’s story of self-publishing sensation Amanda Hocking, a post from agent Andrew Lownie on what editors want in 2012 (@andrewlownie) and various writing competitions. Writers were famously isolated before Twitter, and their opportunities to influence their own careers were limited. Now we are expected to promote ourselves through social media, so it’s worth getting going. And self-publishing through new media is an interesting new development, although Hocking has also recently signed with a traditional publisher.

TBP knew some of it already: she’d done a creative writing module in an English degree. She said she would start sending work off again. ‘No-o-o!’ I emphasised: ‘Read FPTP first.’ And How Not to Write a Novel. And… Sending work off without thinking about where you are in the market, who would be interested in you, and how you should approach them, is like putting it in a bottle and throwing it out to sea. There are too many other bottles bobbing about in a rather large ocean.

Maybe it’s disappointing if people give you general advice, rather than addressing your own work,especially as the actual writing itself is so important. All this extra stuff may seem like alot of work, none of which is getting words on the page, which is what publishers are going to buy, after all. But if you’re a writer, you have to do it. It’s recommended that a self-employed person spends 20% of their time promoting themselves and looking for new clients. A writer – with or without a publisher – is self-employed. No matter how crowded the bookshops, publishers are always looking for a fresh voice. It’s up to you to make it your voice that’s heard.

And TBP – if you did take my advice and join Twitter, maybe you’ll be reading this. Let me know what you think.

Posted in: From the Author by Nina Bell on January 16th, 2012
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When to try a writing course….

January 5th, 2012

Today I read an excellent post by Belinda Bauer on www.shotsmag.co.uk called The Alphabet Is Not Enough, warning would-be writers about getting ensnared by courses. This is a kind-of reply, because, while I agree, I also think that writers can sometimes be too dismissive about writing courses.

Musicians and painters expect to go on learning from their heroes and peers all their lives, but I think we writers sometimes take the ‘either you’re a genius or you’re not’ approach, and are almost afraid of formal learning.

After messing about with a number of novels (all thrown away before completion), I signed on for a week at the Arvon Foundation (www.arvonfoundation.org), an Arts Council funded residential writing course with a number of centres around Britain. Arvon is a charity, so it’s not out to make money but to encourage writing. Also it’s residential. You have a week away from your ordinary life to think about yourself as a writer. That’s a considerable sacrifice of time and money (although it’s cheap for what it is). Your fellow course members are likely to be serious about it.

We had to write something every day, on a topic prescribed by the course tutors. Over a week I discovered that the most talented writers can write crap, and the least talented can sometimes produce a beautiful story. In learning respect for everyone’s work, I learned to respect my own. Two or three writers were wonderfully lyrical, a couple were funny, a few were no-hopers but tried hard and occasionally succeeded. I learned from them all, even the alcoholic who only wanted to tell one story and who wasn’t interested in trying anything different. From him we learned not to get hooked on just one story. If it’s not working, let it go. Above all, what I learned was the importance of everyone having a different ‘voice’ in writing.

Everyone was careful with criticism – you have to be – but I could see what people responded to and what they didn’t. So when I was encouraged to look for an agent, I believed them. One of our fellow pupils was the actress Sheila Hancock, and she has since published several best-selling books. She is genuinely a very talented writer. I don’t know how many others were published, but I am sure those who kept going would have been.

Within a year of that course I found an agent and got a publishing deal. Nine novels later, I’m still earning a living at writing.

Posted in: From the Author by Nina Bell on January 5th, 2012
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Quiz: What Kind of Empty Nester Are You?

September 12th, 2011

With A level results in and halls of residences beckoning, hundreds of thousands of you across the UK will be facing the prospect of your child leaving home for the big wide world, just like Nina’s immaculately drawn characters Clover, Laura and Alice.

But before the children fly the coop in earnest, why not try this just for fun quiz to see where you land on the Empty Nester spectrum? Or if you’re already an Empty Nester, why not take the quiz to gauge how you’re doing.

Quizzes by Quibblo.com | SnapApp Quiz Apps

Taken the quiz, and want more detailed information about the types of Empty Nesters out there? Why not read Nina’s article on the various types of Empty Nesters she encountered in researching the novel.

The Empty Nesters is available from all good bookshops, now. Click here for a first chapter extract.

Posted in: News and Updates by Carleen on September 12th, 2011
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