Follow me on Twitter
  Tiffani Angus
  • Home
  • About
  • Publications
  • Threading the Labyrinth
  • Conventions
  • Blog

On Being Coy When Writing: Don't!

25/7/2012

0 Comments

 
Last week I got a story rejection. It was the first on my latest piece, but I got a very nice rejection letter, with lots of feedback. Some of which was in the form of questions, asking how certain characters were connected, and I read it thinking "What? How did that not make sense? Did you READ the damn thing?" And then I re-read the letter, a bit more slowly, to try and parse out exactly what was confusing the readers.

Turns out I'm being coy. STILL.

While writing the novel with A (my old writing partner), oh so many years ago, we realized that we kept falling into the trap of being coy with information. New writers--hell, even more experienced writers--do it. A lot. We think that to build suspense we have to hold back information and then spring it on the reader. Tada! we say. Look at this cool thing I pulled out of my hat when you weren't looking!

No.

Suspense is built when characters are in the dark, not when readers are. Sure, some pieces of information need to be kept aside for a while, and then used when the time is right. Some of suspense is about timing, too. But we often confuse a story with a joke, thinking we have to build up to a surprise, a punchline. And then what happens is that the reader is lost or bored, on the verge of throwing the book away because that 100 (or 50, or even 10) pages they were going to give you to make something happen is nearly used up. And then where are you? Right: you're in the bin or the pile to go to the charity shop, UNREAD!

When telling a story, we have to TELL THE DAMN STORY. Yet, somehow, I am still not doing that, if even in a small way. I thought I was doing it better. I thought I was straddling the line between letting the story unfold and just blabbing a bunch of information. Obviously I'm still fucking it up. And now I have to go back and revise this story again, somehow look at it as if I've never seen it before and make it make sense. I have to be brave enough to push myself away from the wall and go ask it to dance. Again.

0 Comments

My First Book 'Signing'!

13/7/2012

0 Comments

 
Picture
Last week I did my second public smut reading. It was as fun as the first!

I was so lucky to have so many of my friends show up. I had a posse of six :) Which is fab considering there were 5 of us reading and the space was limited. It was so cool to look up and find a familiar face in every corner of the audience!

The environment at Sh! in Hoxton is comfortable but 'saucy'. We were all plied with lots of bubbly as well as cakes, and there was plenty of time to browse the goods both upstairs and down, where the reading took place. I was the last reader, after KD Grace, Kay Jaybee, Elizabeth Coldwell, and Jacqueline Applebee. About halfway through the first set of readers, a rather 'energetic' group of customers came in upstairs. Sounded like a hen party! Going last, especially after the stories and excerpts these four great ladies read, can be daunting. But I felt confident with my story--I just needed to keep up the pacing in a story with war/battle metaphors and lots of action! I think I accomplished that, based on the reaction from one of the Sh! girls as she came to the 'stage' to thank us all for coming ;)

At the end, we had some time to visit, and I signed books. MY FIRST SIGNING! It was for two of my friends, plus the other authors and a copy that we all signed to be given away by the shop. But still! I autographed books! ha!

And then some of us went out for curry and ate and drank and talked. The End :)

0 Comments

All Hail the Subconscious

1/7/2012

0 Comments

 
My mind plays trick on me.

It doesn't make me see things that aren't there or insist that you said something you didn't say. Instead, it waits until I'm deep in the flow and writing away before pulling a rabbit out of its hat.

Several months ago I gave my PhD supervisor an early draft of pieces of the novel as well as a draft of a short story I've been working on for a year or so now. One of her most important comments was about characters' names. Without realizing it, I had named three characters after people. One was long dead but a famous historic personage. Fair enough. But the other two are very much alive, people I've never met, but friends of hers AND well-known in the SF/F community. Somehow their names wormed their way into my subconscious and then popped back out when I was in need.

Now that I think of it, I've not done a check to be sure that the new names I chose for the characters don't also belong to people famous or infamous.

The trickery doesn't stop with names. Nor is it always such a negative thing.

I'm working without a plan, without an outline. I don't tend to write that way, and I don't particularly LIKE writing that way. But it's how this novel has happened, and I'm on a deadline and can't wait for the diamond-encrusted muses to get back to me, so I'm writing by the seat of my pants.

I come up with a lot of ideas, and solve a lot of problems, in the 'in-between'--that state between being awake and being asleep. Having a notebook and pen next to the bed are necessary. When I'm writing by the seat of my pants, I have to trust a sort of waking 'in-between' (flow, the zone, whatever you call it) to keep me moving forward. Last week I was working on the Victorian section of the novel, in which a young girl, the daughter of an estate's head gardener, meets her aunt for the first time. I'd recently discovered Julia Margaret Cameron, the Victorian-era photographer, and used her as inspiration when creating the aunt character. She takes her niece, on the day of their first meeting, out into the grounds to show her what the camera does. The niece stands against a tree, where her aunt photographs her. The girl's dress and the tree are much the same color, but it's her face that shines out from the shadows, her look stern.

I finished writing the scene, sat back in my chair, and looked up at the bulletin board above my desk. Right at a photograph--one of many I've bought over the years at antiques stores and flea markets--of a young girl in Edwardian dress, standing in front of a large tree trunk, her clothes and the tree of similar hue, her face clear and light, with a harsh look in her eyes.

As a writer I like to think that the ideas I come up with are original, but I know better. Plus, this way is more interesting.

0 Comments

    Tiffani Angus

    Mostly thoughts on writing and the creative life.

    Archives

    November 2022
    October 2022
    June 2022
    October 2021
    July 2021
    February 2021
    December 2020
    August 2020
    July 2020
    June 2020
    May 2020
    March 2020
    February 2020
    January 2020
    July 2019
    February 2019
    January 2019
    December 2018
    November 2018
    May 2018
    March 2018
    January 2018
    October 2017
    July 2017
    June 2017
    May 2017
    April 2017
    December 2016
    September 2016
    August 2016
    May 2016
    March 2016
    February 2016
    January 2016
    December 2015
    November 2015
    October 2015
    September 2015
    August 2015
    July 2015
    June 2015
    May 2015
    April 2015
    March 2015
    February 2015
    January 2015
    December 2014
    November 2014
    October 2014
    September 2014
    August 2014
    July 2014
    June 2014
    April 2014
    January 2014
    April 2013
    March 2013
    November 2012
    October 2012
    July 2012
    May 2012
    April 2012
    March 2012
    February 2012

    RSS Feed

Proudly powered by Weebly