Obsession and confession

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Obsession

Okay, I just can't keep this in any longer. I'm utterly obsessed. My hands are shaking at the thought of being without my most recent addiction. I've ridden this wave before - in fact I've been suffering from this same addiction since I was about twelve. Don't worry — it's not a drug, although it is linked to a 7% solution of cocaine. It's my oldest literary love: Sherlock Holmes.

Above is my first Sherlock, the one that Arthur Conan Doyle wrote in the guise of Dr. John Watson. The illustrator was Sidney Paget and he gave me the person who I thought was the definitive consulting detective. This is why I've always preferred Basil Rathbone; he looked more like the person Paget drew than Jeremy Brett or Robert Downey Jnr (although I'll give the former credit for great performances and the latter credit for bringing sexy back). But, twenty years after I first fell in love with the books, I've found the perfect Sherlock: Benedict Cumberbatch.

As you can see from this picture, which is only necessary if the rock you live under is well insulated and doesn't have wi-fi, this has very little in common with Sidney Paget's pictures. The disappearing hair-line has been replaced with luscious locks and the aquiline features have softened. It was as I was falling in love with this new guise of the master detective that I realised something: the words always meant more than the pictures. Sherlock Holmes is no more Paget's pictures than he is the deer-stalker he never actually wore in the books. Arthur Conan Doyle gave us a character more rich than any picture and Cumberbatch's Holmes is the blunt, egotistical and emotionally-stunted genius that I first loved so many years ago. Welcome back, Mr. Holmes.

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Confession

I've spent a lot of time defending the humble semi-colon (;) but I must now confess something — semi-colons are a dying breed. The reason is this: there are enough other punctuation marks to cover semi-colons, the most common of which are em dashes (—). This lovely, long hyphen is very popular and performs the same function as the semi-colon; it binds two parts of a sentence which are related but go in a different direction to each other. I don't think the point is that the semi-colon is not necessary, though, I think the point is that we're using em dashes more often. Em dashes are easier to understand because they are a single line and we're so used to seeing them and using them. I'm not saying that we should replace the semi-colon with the em dash, not at all, but we should be punctuating to our audience. The em dashes are the semi-colons of the younger audience so it makes more sense to use them in young adult stories and novels. If you're writing adult work or a nice piece of literature then the semi-colon is your man. As for me, I'll be sticking with the way I currently punctuate; I'll be using each punctuation mark as the need arises. Sorry about the fence-sitting, semi-colon, but you're both useful.

1001 words forward

Hey readers,

We've got a treat today as I have interviewed the brilliant Scarlett Archer about her new book '1001 First Lines'. So, wiout further ado, let's start at the very beginning!

Do you consider the first line to be an important part of a story? If so, why?

I think it's one of the most vital parts of a book. When I pick up a book I want it to catch me. Given I'll wait a couple of paragraphs but I'm essentially looking to be seized by the opening line. It's like hearing someone for the first time, you immediately get the impression of what they're about from the way they talk, the way they say their words, the rhythm that they arrive, and how the words mingle in amongst one another. 

Do you find first lines easy to come up with, or challenging? Do you have a technique, or a ritual, that you go by to make it easy?

It's definitely one thing I love about writing. I know a lot of writers who hate starting a story but the first line is an inviting challenge. It's beginning the great meal I'm cooking up! I don't find them easy to come up with but I enjoy thinking about them. They don't frustrate me. As for a technique or ritual I give my intuition a lot of room to take charge. I don't force it but browse through inspiration and let things build. Normally something will eventually come along, even if I force myself to sit down and begin I've given it enough space to have something ready. 

What consequences, if any, do you think there are in having a badly written first line?

I put the book down. The end.

What's your favourite first line that you've ever read? And can you recall a worst?

"The man in black fled across the desert and the gunslinger followed." - The Gunslinger (Dark Tower Series), Stephen King. It was the moment when I realised the power of a first line because I picked the book up in the book store, read it, read no more but bought it straight away and went home and demolished the whole series.

What is one of your own best first lines?

"Aroset put a bullet into his head." Clean, immediate conflict, someone's gonna die.

We're all sharing here! What's one of your worst first lines?

"Oh my God, what the hell is Brett doing?" This beginning grates me to the core. All I hear is a whiny teenager, probably because that's exactly what I was at the time I wrote it!

Do you have any suggestions for other authors on how to write a great first line? Have you heard any great advice yourself?

I think one of the best things I learned in writing in general was to bring action in to the present. Make it punchy, and alarming. Don't be afraid to shock your reader! 

What are some things a first line *shouldn't* be? What are some things that you've read in first lines that really rubs you the wrong way?

Info dumping. No matter what the genre of the book- and it happens more often in things like fantasy and sci fi, which is probably why I don't read a lot of it- it shouldn't start with a hill and a half of information.

 

Scarlett Rugers (writing as Scarlett Archer) has just released a book 1001 First Lines which is now available at Amazon! You can purchase a paperback, .lit, .epub, .mobi and PDF versions here: http://www.1001firstlines.wordpress.com.

She has been writing for over fifteen years, completed over eleven novels, and her main drive is in speculative fiction or its contrasting opposite romantic comedic novels. She has a passion for studying the art of story telling and is a grand lover of movies. Her focus in work is book cover designs which enables her to put all her energy in to the area she loves most- literature. You can get in touch with her about getting a book cover designed for you athttp://www.booksat.scarlettrugers.com

To read my interview by Scarlett check out  http://www.1001firstlines.wordpress.com

What do you think about first lines? Got any favourites or ones that completely turned you off a book?

Divide and Conquer

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Divide

I'm probably not the best person to ask about this but it is definitely worth consideration: how do you divide your time between writing and the rest of life? In the past few weeks I've discovered one method: if you give yourself goals then you make the time to write. It started with two calls for submissions that were due within a day of each other. While scheduling travel and adventure I made time for my writing and, therefore, managed to submit to both of the journals I was going for; one successfully, the other I haven't heard from yet. Whether I get in to both, either or none is not the point, though. The point is that I managed to give myself writing time and that made me realise that I could do it anytime I liked. Which, of course, hasn't effected me in the least. So I found a couple more journals to submit to. I'm sure it can work in other ways; scheduling by calendar or setting an amount of time per day. I'm equally sure that these things haven't worked for me so I'll just keep chasing journals for the time being.

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Conquer

There are some things we as editors are out to conquer: bad spelling, incorrect grammar, those roadblocks that stop the reader in their tracks. I've recently found something much bigger and harder to overcome, however, and that is editing confidence. It's hard starting out in any industry but I feel that editing is harder still. Every other job that I've done have had clearly defined lines: receptionists should answer the phone within three rings, you should use apply pressure with a cloth to stop bleeding, a single shot of coffee should take fifteen seconds, etc. Editing, on the other hand, is very fluid work. Aside from absolutes like spelling and many aspects of grammar we wrestle with questions of style — the sentence may be grammatically correct but does it flow? Is it easy for the reader to follow its progression? Is there too much nesting (sections within sections within sections)? This is where there are no real rules; the best that we can do is identify areas where we believe these problems are occurring and recommend re-writes. This is where the fear lies and where we can conquer our demons. For me it was a simple choice: I weighed up the thought of incurring an author's wrath against leaving something out which should be noted. I decided to leave nothing out and recommend everything I deemed necessary. This is the victory. Editors of the world believe in yourselves and put those recommendations in!

Big Hurricanes and Small Flurries

                                                  Picture from here



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Big Hurricanes

Hi blogees! I've been remiss in updating to lately but to be fair I've been travelling (see last entry) and have been busy writing my fingers to bleeding stumps. Well, not literally but I have been writing some fiction so I guess a little hyperbole won't hurt.
My hurricanes took the form of an article about dystopia and a short short story (1000 words). I started my work on the essay over a month ago but work had stagnated as I searched for a way to organise my findings. It turned out that I wrote the entire essay in two days and edited it in one. I know there are some of you out there who will be aghast at what appears to be sloppily quick work but my research was already done and I always end up with a fairly clean first copy requiring only small amendments only. I covered a reasonable swathe of literature in the short article (I've put a list below in case you want to get your dystopia on!) and found many agreements between them allowing me to cover themes, as well as real-world examples of these themes.
The short short story, therefore, was not something I was prepared for. Having finished the essay on the day it was due I had twenty-four hours to get the story written and edited. It was tricky on two fronts: my usual word count for a short is 2000 so I was required to condense my usually succinct form even further. The other difficulty was that it was themed, the theme being 'bones'. I meditated on this for several of my sixteen hours (I slept during the twenty-four) and came up with ideas that appeared to be hackneyed and not suited to my style. I google-imaged every word I could think of regarding bones, eventually landing me with some old Dutch paintings which I favoured years ago. I felt the hours ticking by and, despite my best efforts to put myself in the right space, I was no closer. The tipping point came while making my third cup of tea for the day - I decided to take my mind away from creating a full story and just create an introduction which I liked in the hope that the rest would come and come it did. In two hours I had a complete story which had organically turned into my usual style and favourite genre (I'll give you a clue as to the genre - I just wrote an essay on it!). Two hours later and with the help of the lovely Aimee I had an edited story and a submission done. I discovered two great things during this time: I can push myself and still come out okay, and submitting work is less scary if you do it regularly. I'm ready for the future!

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Small Flurries

Here's a literary pun for the girls out there but if you're a boy I'm sure you'll get it too. If Americans call full stops periods then I must be Cormac McCarthy for most of the month and Ernest Hemmingway for a few days. Okay, it may have resulted in a lame joke but it got me thinking: editing for foreign publication is a lot harder than editing for your native audience. For one thing, if I write that the microfilm my fictional spy is carrying around (do they still use those?) is a bee's dick or that the only palm tree in Gundagai is as subtle as dog's balls on a budgie then I expect Aussies to get that (side note: why are all of my comparisons forming from genitals today?). It's not just the spelling and, in some cases, grammar which may change over borders but expressions may be misunderstood. Consider the television show Kath and Kim - we find it hilarious because we know these people but perhaps the reason why it flopped in the US is that they didn't get our expressions. If this analogy doesn't work for you think of Waltzing Matilda. Words like coolibah, billy, jumbuck, billabong and swagman do not make sense to people who have never heard them before - it's pure Aussie which makes it another language to outsiders. So, if you're considering writing for a foreign audience consider your lingo or else us editors will have the red pencil out!