How do you choose the settings for your stories?

When you read a book the setting is like another character.  It’s important, you want to picture the characters in their surroundings, even if your version of that picture is different to everyone else.  I’ve written before on how I see describing settings as a balance between giving enough information to convey something of my vision of any given place while still leaving enough room for the reader to form their own picture.  It’s like I provide the outline and the reader colours it in.  For the Inspector Kirby books this was an interesting and evolving process.

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Those pre-launch jitters - What to do

My last book, Inspector Kirby and Harold Longcoat - A Northumbrian Mystery went down well with those who read it.  There just weren’t enough of those readers.  A familiar story to many out there I’m sure.  It was fun to write and everyone said it was fun to read, which is great.  However, it was still just one book and everything you read tells you as an indie author you need a series.  Well, I’ve done it.  I’ve written books two and three and the early feedback has been positive.  So what now? 

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Story settings and the reader's mind

For me the setting of any book if it’s pivotal to the story becomes a character in the story.  The reader has to be able to see the setting in the same way they vision the characters.  This means giving enough description to convey a frame work for that character/setting without being to prescriptive and depriving the reader of the fun of having their own vision of what the person/place looks like. 

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30 things one writer learnt in 2018

At this time, in early January, I’m looking forward to what the new year might bring.  However, it’s always good to look back at the year just gone and see what nuggets of wisdom it left behind.  So here goes:

1. It is possible to have a writing blip.  It’s not that I’ve fallen out with writing it’s just that other things have been going on and the thing that’s suffered most is my blog.
2. How much stuff two people can stash in one kitchen.
3. Those tins at the back of the cupboard are likely to many years out of sell-by.  Our record was 2005
4. You never stop learning as a writer.  I’ve been back over my first book.  Tempted to do the same for the rest.
5. I can enjoy relaxing on the beach (as long as the sea’s warm, there’s a sun lounger and a taverna which brings you coffee).
6. Get those stories out!  They’re no good sitting on my/your hard drive.  For me I’ve got two follow-ups to the first book I published which have been sitting there for a years.  A 2019 resolution?
7. I still don’t like playing golf in the rain and mud.  When you see it on TV they’re always playing in warm sunshine.
8. Sometimes you can’t have too much of a good thing.  In the UK we had a glorious summer, fingers crossed for 2019.
9. Most of the time you can take out the word “that” in your writing – try it.
10. Beware the passive voice.

For the other 20 nuggets of wisdom (or not) follow this link

That very last (honest, I mean) revision - what I look for

I’ve been doing  a lot of revision recently.  On top of finalising the second and third books for Inspector Kirby I am also revisiting my first book, for which I’ve had books two and three sitting on my hard drive for a few years now.  I’m not saying I’m an expert, however, I have got into a sort of rhythm with it.  I write the story quickly.  I rarely go back and tinker until the whole thing is finished (unless I have a eureka moment).  The first few revisions are easy and I find it fun.  I’m assessing the plot, adding interest, finding better way to describe, correcting clunky prose etc.  At some (undefined) point I draw the line on this and go into to polishing mode.  I’ve done that for Kirby and that’s what I’m doing now to that other series, including the one I’ve published (after all it was my first book).  I don’t know if doing so much revision has sensitised me however I find myself, in that last run through, obsessively looking for certain things.

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Ideas - where does that next great book come from?

I write this now because I’m struggling.  I’ve finished revising books two and three of my Inspector Kirby series and I’m searching for ideas for book four.  I’ve got two other books to revise, however, I feel I need the inspiration of attacking something new.

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Indie authors - is writing that series the key?

Like most indie-authors I’m looking for the “secret of sales".  How do I get the word out, how do I attract those followers I need.  And yes I know it’s not all about selling, at least not for me.  I enjoy the writing and I get a real kick out of people who tell me they’ve read my books and enjoyed them.  In many ways I just want more people to enjoy them and if I can make a little on the positive side of expenses:sales balance sheet that would be great. 

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What's wrong with a nice story?

The prompt for this post was a film I watched recently, Salmon fishing is the Yemen.  I knew it had good crits and it’d been on my “to see” list for a long time.  From the first few minutes to the end I enjoyed it.  It was a gentle tale, with an element of humour and even a bit of romance.  There was some violence, however basically it was a “nice” (and I know as authors the word “nice” is something to be avoided) story well told.

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A writer's resolutions for 2018

In my previous blog I reflected on what I'd learnt in 2017.  So now It’s time to look forward to a new year and make my writer's plans for 2018, a.k.a. resolutions.  I do this every year and yes, I do look back at them from time to time.  Like most of us some I have fulfilled, others have been partially met and some discarded along the way.  So are they worth it?  I think so.  It’s a good time to re-focus, to assess what I’m trying to do, what I want to achieve.

So for 2018:  For the complete blog follow the link 

Another year as a writer - time to reflect

Well, that’s almost it for 2017.  I don’t know whether it's because I'm a writer and there never seems to be enough time, or it’s just that I’m getting older (as everyone does of course).  However, I sure someone is sneaking days out my years while I’m not looking.  Still, it’s time to reflect, which I think it’s important, especially for an indie-author.  What have I done well and what could have done better?  Where have I stepped up to the plate and where have I shirked or side stepped issues?

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All those writer courses - shop wisely

Now up front I want to say I’m not against paid on-line writer courses.  I can only comment on the ones I have looked at and in a couple of cases paid out good money for.  They are full of useful content that, if you are in the right place with your writing and prepared to put in the time and effort I’m sure they can have a major impact.  However, what they are not (in my opinion) is a magic bullet.  For the vast majority of Indie-authors success will not be instant and when it comes will probably be modest.  But hey, modest is good and I’ll be happy with modest when I get there.  And yes any better than modest, I admit, would be great.

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Writers beware - sod's law exists

Part of my first job on leaving Uni was in the quality assurance section of a scientific organisation.  Believe it or not, before the late 1970s little of it existed.  After all everyone was doing their best so the data and reports would be fine wouldn’t they?  Answer, no.  Because if nothing else Sod’s Law operates. i.e. whatever can go wrong, will go wrong.  And one of the problems back then was that nobody understood what could go wrong – it was of course, anything and everything.  So after a few well published cases, which I won’t go into, the need for a formal system of quality assurance was established.

For me this involved, amongst other things the checking of scientific reports, both for internal consistency and against the “raw data”.  At first my involvement, essentially pointing out where people had made errors was resented.  I mean, who was I to tell a senior scientist they had made mistakes.  And this wasn’t just the odd typo, whole lines of data were transposed, decimal points were in the wrong place, thing disappeared from the records only to appear elsewhere.  I could go on.  These didn’t always affect the scientific outcomes, but occasionally they could and this was important work.  What’s more it’s not as if you could predict when or where a major error might occur.

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What does it take to be a writer? - Persitence

For most writers success is not an overnight event.  One of my all time, and sadly missed, writer heroes, Iain Banks, completed five or six books before being published.  He persisted.

Now I write this blog a week or so after I’ve launched my latest book.  I’ve had some sales, but not as many as hoped for.  So yes, I admit it, I’m a little disappointed.  I feel that I just need that kick start, that nudge that sends sales cascading.  The book itself is a new venture for me, being urban fantasy / detective story, written in a humorous style, rather than my usual science fiction.

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Meet Inspector Kirby

Inspector Kirby, Jonah to his friends and 'old school' to his junior colleagues, wandered out of the cottage.  He crossed the road and headed down the lane, with thorny hedge rows either side, that led to the sea.  He’d put this off for days, wondering how it would make him feel.  Still there was nothing quite like a walk along the coast with its prevailing North East breeze and the smell of salt and rotting seaweed in the air to clear the mind.  And let’s face it there was a lot to clear.

To meet Inspector Kirby follow this link

Getting into your characters - Inspector Kirby and Harold Longcoat

My latest project, Inspector Kirby and Harold Longcoat, due to be launched in a few week’s time, was great fun to write.  Possibly, because it’s a change from my normal diet of science fiction, set as it is in the present day, more-or-less.  It’s a detective, mystery story, again something new for me, although not quite that straightforward.  If you’ve read some of my short stories you’ll understand.  It’s also allowed me to play with the humour in my writing.  However, I think one of the keys to getting that part of it right was developing sympathetic characters who would play off each other.

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Indie authors - relish cross genre fiction

I enjoy my science fiction and my fantasy.  When I pick up a book (or these days download) in one of these genres I guess I know what I’m getting, I’m on safe ground.  Also, as a writer if I stick to a genre I know where I’m going with my books.  I know where they will “fit”.  This is very much the case with the Bleak books and Project Noah.  They are very firmly in the science fiction camp.  There’s nothing wrong with that.  I enjoyed writing them and from the feedback I’ve had people enjoy reading them.

The first book I published and whose sequels are written and waiting to be finalised (they occasionally nag at me to be published) is a little different.  While still very much science fiction it has an element of fantasy in that I give a “scientific” reason for the existence of Fairies (you’ll understand if you read it).

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The publishing dilemma of the indie author

I recently went on holiday for a week (yes, again for any regular readers of my blog).  It was a very chilled trip to the Greek island of Cephalonia, I recommend it.  So I had plenty of time to think amongst reading, eating, boat trips, watching the world go by and the odd cocktail or two.  And for me that means about my writing and inevitably publishing because:

Here I am again.  I have a book almost ready to launch and I know I’m prevaricating.  I have sent it to eight or nine agents back in February and so far I have had a "thanks but no thanks" from two of them (and I’m not holding my breath for the rest).  I guess like most self-published authors the lure of a publishing deal is still the dream no matter how much I tell myself that I am good enough to make it as an indie author.  And I know that agents receive hundreds of manuscripts a year and at best they take on one or two new authors.  So my chances are slim. 

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A writer on location

My latest book is out to agents – fingers crossed.  Although, I won’t be too disappointed if it’s not taken up as I will be excited to see what I can do with it myself.  Early readers have been enthusiastic and reckon it’s more commercial / an easier sell than my normal scifi.  This latest venture is a detective mystery with a supernatural / magical edge.  It grew out of several short stories centred on the main character, an Inspector Kirby.  Once again it shows the value of shorts stories to the novel writer (something I’ve blogged about before).  So, what’s this got to do with me being on location? 

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Why as an author I love to blog

I don’t deny that I started blogging as a way to build a profile as a writer and thereby promote my work, although not in a “buy my book, buy my book” sense.  I also hope that for those that read my blog it helps you as authors, or that you at least find it interesting and hopefully at times thought provoking.  Then yes, maybe you'll buy my books.

However, blogging has delivered a personal bonus I didn't anticipate in the beginning.  Why as an author I now love to blog is how it makes me think about issues that relate to my writing.  Also, not just think but about them but write them down in a hopefully coherent and succinct way.   It’s this that then often finds its way into my fiction.

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It's tough being an indie author?

The question mark in the title is deliberate.  That’s because although it may be tough to become a successful indie author, it’s not tough to be an indie author.  There are pros and cons and perhaps what are overlooked are the consequences.  Let me explain:

The Cons

You are on your own.  Yes, you can pay for services (and I would advise you do, at least for some of what you need).  However, all the drive and motivation has to come from you, from the desire to first put finger to keyboard to going out there, running a marketing campaign and finding your audience.  You, unless you are very lucky, are the only one investing time energy and money in making your book a success.

When it comes to those services you may wish to use, editorial, proof reading, book covers, marketing etc. all those have to come out of your own pocket up front on (at least for most indie authors) the hope that you will have pay-back in time.  Oh, and that time may well be several/many books down the road, if you’re lucky and you keep at it.

Like it or not a lot of the reading public will view your books as an inferior product.  It is a view that I believe is changing, albeit slowly.  However, I feel it is a view still promoted by many in the traditional publishing industry, which is natural I guess as it can been seen as a threat to their livelihoods.   There are authors who have overcome that perception and are successful.  However, it is a battle I believe indie authors face and we do not always help ourselves (see consequences).

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