WRITING - Know Your Environment
Most authors have the core, the kernel of their idea. It may be the climax of the trilogy - The Federation regains control of the shipping lanes and can continue trading - or it may be the central theme - Redhead women in New York are being attacked, and the assailant keeps their left sock - but whatever the premise of the story, the writer has a starting point. I doubt if any successful first novel came from someone thinking 'I'm gonna write a financial crime thriller'. You need an idea, at least.J.K. Rowling knew how her seven book series would end and, with a few minor adjustments, it remained that way. In 1874, Lewis Carroll's 'starting point' was in fact, the ending of a nonsense poem "For the Snark was a Boojum, you see" and he spent the next two years writing the world's longest nonsense poem to 'explain' this single sentence.
I find that it's often a good idea to jot down some basic concepts before I start. However, I also find that I can get bogged down in the minutiae of it all, focusing on so trivial things, that I cannot see the woods for the trees. It's a bad habit, one that I have repeatedly pledged to discard... right before I spend three hours on my blog site, changing and amending the theme, or get sidetracked into creating an excel that will calculate tax on your salary in five different jurisdictions.
I guess I will never learn!
That said, I have a multitude of 'fantastic' ideas, but the vast majority of them are discarded. Some, because they are close to existing books, others because they don't have the mileage and even a few that, whilst I believe in the plot, I know my own abilities - know that I cannot write it in a way that would give it justice.
Attachments is such a plot. It's a near future crime thriller in which the bad guys are defrauding people by...
Ah! Now that's the problem isn't it? I know I cannot write it. I don't have the ability, but I'm hardly going to give it away. You're going to have to find your own Boojum.
Comments (11)
Great to see you back!
Now, how are they doing the defrauding?
Now.... ....wheres Biff......
Biff has a Publisher...she is on her way to fame and fortune....
So tell me more about this plot ......
Most of my books start when I suddenly get seized with the urgent need to murder somebody. Then I work out how to murder them, and who will take the rap, that takes some planning. If they get past that hurdle I need only a motive, red herrings, oh, and around thirty thousand extra words of story
Pass the cream, if you're not going to use it, I have a slice of apple pie here begging to be eaten
I see it as similar to being a guitarist.. for every one that does it for a living there are several hundred that aspire to, and there are a lot of very talented people that can do the most insane guitar solo's but cant just be in a band and strum away normally most of the time.
Thats probably my writing style, every so often something funny/interesting but no structure or discipline.
Totally correct. I had a guy in my band just like that. Would know EVH off his perch, bot totally unable to play C Am F & G consistently for more than about 6 or 7 bars...
Keep writing anyway - it's cathartic!
Biff's the writer.
I'm just someone who writes...