Beginnings or Endings?

I've finished The Steep Approach to Garbadale and I'm a bit disappointed. Technically, the book answers all the questions it raised but I feel dissatisfied. I've put my more detailed views in a comment, so as not to spoil the book for anyone.

It did raise for me the question of which is more important: the beginning or ending of a book? Anyone who wants to get published knows the importance of a beginning to hook the reader in but as a reader I think it is the ending of books that tends to stay with me. If the ending doesn't work for me then it colours my feelings about the whole book.

Lowbrow

I've nearly finished Where Demons Dare and I'm embarrassed to admit that I've enjoyed it more than The Steep Approach to Garbadale. I think that makes me very lowbrow.

The Kim Harrison book is full of demons and vampires. It's not beautifully written, for example it has characters growling or hissing dialogue in places, although I've noticed fewer editing problems than in her last book. But the story pulls me along and it seems to be getting somewhere. Relationships are changing. Revelations are being made. The main character is struggling with good and evil and finding it's more complex than that.

The Steep Approach was very funny in places but it was let down by its ending. I'm just hoping that Demons doesn't suffer from the same problem. Not long now till I find out.

Writing about life

I've been reading Timothy Hallinan's blog and laughing guiltily at it. Guiltily because I don't usually laugh at other people's misfortunes and laughing because he has taken a bloody awful day and turned it into a very amusing piece of prose.

It got me thinking about feelings and writing. I don't think it's any use writing a story simply as catharsis if you want someone else to enjoy reading it. I've read other people's work that was written simply to get something off their chest or as tribute to a wonderful family member. It has huge emotional impact for them but not for anyone else.

My first longish story was fairly autobiographical. It was also crap but I felt better for writing it. Unfortunately, I haven't reached the stage of non-crapness yet where I can tell you how to do the opposite: take the experiences you have and transform them into something that will resonate with the reader and give them a good experience. I'm pretty sure that avoiding self-indulgent writing is in there somewhere. Perhaps it means writing with another person in mind. Experienced writers, please feel free to chip in here.

I don't know if writing his blog post yesterday made Timothy feel any better about his day but it definitely made me feel better. That's good writing at work.

The Look and Feel of New Books

I've just got Where Demons Dare delivered. It's published as The Outlaw Demon Wails in the US, hence the widget at the top of this post. I have no idea how good it will be: the last ones in the series were a romp with vampires, pixies, witches and demons. They have been getting progressively less good, in my view, but I find myself wanting to follow the story.

What struck me today was the sheer joy of holding a brand new book in my hands. Freshly unwrapped, it looks like it has never been opened. All the pages are tight, there are no creases anywhere, the cover is shiny. I almost don't want to spoil it by reading it. Almost.

I can't imagine a time when I won't love paperback books. I wonder if electronics will ever take over? I suppose no one imagined that papyrus scrolls would become passé at the time.

Note: I'm not affiliated with any booksellers. I just link to where I can find a good picture and/or review.

Writing about sex

I'm still reading Garbadale (see previous post) and I'm struck by how well Banks handles writing about sex. He's very witty, for example when writing about the main character (aged 15):

He hadn't seen much porn, but he was damn sure the way to instant sexual success wasn't becoming a plumber or a pool technician.

He also manages to describe sex in words appropriate to whoever is the Point Of View character at the time, so we get

rubbing her through her jeans

where the first "her" stands in for a more explicit description, through to the use of words like "fuck" and "penis". He does it beautifully.

I have to say that I find scenes which use indirect words can be very erotic, as a misplaced "clitoris" can pull me right out of the story. I need the characters to speak in their own voices, otherwise it sounds like a visit to the clinic.

I think I said much the same thing about the use of strong language generally. Is that the secret of good writing: get into your character's heads?

Iain Banks

I'm just reading The Steep Approach to Garbadale and enjoying it very much. The blurb suggests that it's Banks best book since The Crow Road, which is high on my list of favourite books. It certainly has the most amazing first line of any book I've read:

It was the day my grandmother exploded.

It takes an unusually good book to follow that beginning successfully and it does.

Banks has written other books and I haven't enjoyed them all. The Player of Games is his only science fiction that I've been able to get on with. But it looks like The Steep Approach to Garbadale is going to be a keeper. I'll let you know when I finish it.

The Speed of Write

I've just found this nifty little speed test for typing. Unlike some of them, if you make a single mistake and go back and correct it, it doesn't count everything you type as wrong: just the mistake.

It makes my typing look good. Although in the very short extract you're given I managed between three and six mistakes. I love my backspace key!

See how it's written

I keep coming across new ways of writing or presenting writing. My latest find is Fuzzmail. You type an email in a special window and all your keystrokes and pauses are recorded. Then when you send the mail to someone, they get a link to the window and can see the email as you typed it.

The creators say:

We created fuzzmail because we wanted a more emotionally expressive alternative to email, so that an emailed love letter does not have to look the same as a business letter.

I'm not sure if they've succeeded. Do I want to let someone see my thinking as I wrote to them? Sometimes when I edit it's to be clearer but in an email it may be that I want to be more tactful. That's not going to happen if someone can see my first thoughts.

It could make for some wonderful fiction though. You could show a character's real thinking and what he or she presents to the world and how different they are. I had a go at it here. If you do one, maybe you could post the link in the comments and we can all see it.

No Regrets?

I have just found out about The Beast, which was an interactive web game by a team of writers including the novelist Sean Stewart.

It has finished.

I wasn't entirely inconsolable as I'm not sure I would have managed to keep up anyway.

Not so long ago I came upon the wonderful blog by Miss Snark, offering witty advice to aspiring writers from the point of view of a literary agent. A whole community grew up around the blog and I would have loved to be able to join in the comments. But I came to it late.

It had finished.

Now that one I was sorry to have missed. If only I could have been a Snarkling. Alas, I was too late.

I'm determined not to have this happen again but I'm not sure how to keep up to date with what's happening. It seems to be a feature of the internet that the most exciting events end just as they become most popular. At least I'm in on Evil Editor's blog and community of writers. I hear he's just had his millionth hit. I hope he won't be leaving us any time soon: I've only just found him.

snollǝʌɹɐɯ ƃuıddılɟ

˙"ɹǝʇuǝ puɐ puǝıɹɟ ʞɐǝds" :ʎɹʇ oʇ pǝǝu ı ǝqʎɐɯ os 'dn ʎɐʍ sıɥʇ ɥsıʌlǝ ǝɹoɯ sʞool ʇı ˙ƃɹnqɯɹʎʍ ǝɥʇ uı ƃuılıǝɔ ǝɥʇ ɯoɹɟ ƃuıƃuɐɥ puıʍǝɔuıɹ ǝʞıl 'sʇɥƃnoɥʇ uʍop ǝpısdn ǝʇıɹʍ oʇ pǝǝu ı ǝqʎɐɯ ˙uʍop ǝpısdn ƃuıʇıɹʍ ʎɯ ǝǝs oʇ ǝʞɐɯ llıʍ ʇı ǝɔuǝɹǝɟɟıp ʇɐɥʍ ɹǝpuoʍ ı

I wonder what difference it will make to see my writing upside down. Maybe I need to write upside down thoughts, like Rincewind hanging from the ceiling in the Wyrmburg. It looks more Elvish this way up, so maybe I need to try: "Speak Friend and Enter".

You can flip your own text here: http://www.revfad.com/flip.html

Thanks to Pewari for finding this.