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 |  Impromptu writing, whatever comes...on writing or whatever the question of the day is. |
| For some time, I have been following a learned writer on Twitter for inspiration. I started following him--Frank Delaney--to read Ulysses with, through his weekly podcast sessions. Frank Delaney is a writer with an Irish background and understands the Irish feeling better than I ever can on my own, and reading James Joyce by myself has always left me with the feeling that I missed something, even though I might have enjoyed the book completely. While doing that, I came to realize that it wasn’t only reading Joyce, but it was Delaney’s in-depth look into literature and writing that made me follow him. I also enjoy this writer’s sense of humor regarding earlier writers as in this tweet. “Today, 1791, James Boswell published his Life of Dr. Johnson – with, of course, Johnson safely long dead.” I haven’t tweeted at or bothered FD in any way and he doesn't know that I exist unless he checks his follower list, but I kept some of his advice in a word file. And some good advice it is. Then I thought why not share a part of it in my blog, as some WdC writer may use a thought or two. Because the tips on writing are already tweeted for the whole world and there’s such a thing as retweeting, I don’t think this will be a copyright infringement. If you wish to follow him yourself here’s his twitter page. Frank Delaney’s fiction is also sold in Amazon. Here are a selection of Frank Delaney tips from the last two months in Twitter. • Make your chief secondary character totally unpredictable. He/she will keep you and your novel on your toes. • Give your protagonist your partner’s most irksome habit • Looking for a title? Try a large old cookery book –because recipes have wonderful phrases and are often self-supporting metaphors. • Looking for titles for your book? Try songs from decades past. Vaudeville, music-hall, operetta are rich in arresting and unusual phrases. • People who are cheap can be more interesting than people who are not. • "What is our most interesting emotion? The most compelling? Love? Jealousy? I'll put a bid in for remorse." • How do your characters relate to their shoes? • Don’t describe voices. You may have to read the audio book. • Want to write a novel about a writer? Show us what the writer writes. It lets us into the writer’s mind – and is a shortcut into your own! • When you describe a pair of hands, you describe the whole person. • Take your protagonist to the doctor; you'll learn a lot. • This is useful: List the scenes that will be most demanding to write, and schedule them for when you know you’ll be at your most rested. • Repetition- of words, catch-phrases- reveals personality, but don't use it too often. • Still can’t write? Begin drafting the story of your life as a biographer might. The objectivity (and the narcissism) will shake you up. • Pace in fiction is like color in painting- disturbing if it's not right. • It might be non-fiction, but it's still a story- so tell it. • Looking for energy? Write a dinner scene for multiple characters and make one of them truly offensive. It’ll galvanize all the others. • Be obsessed to uncover and read every fact that has been written on the subject. • Great Research Sources: the archives of small-town newspapers anywhere in the world since printing began. All human life is there. • Plot Driver: Imagine the best thing that could happen to a character you love. Write the opposite for them and enjoy the dynamic! • Build confidence by being objective. Pretend someone else wrote your text and make yourself its kindly but rigorous critic. • Be careful using dreams- they're often boring. • Don't bother using your novel to slam an enemy: it'll be less readable than you think- and who cares? • When inventing characters, give yourself the parents you've always wanted. • Experts make great characters- Who doesn't love an expert? • “Evil” is an anagram for “vile”-and also, for the adjective, “live.” • Can’t find your way forward? Switch the point-of-view: e.g., write in the first person if you’re in third. It’ll loosen up everything • Try and make us wonder what's happening to our protagonists when they're not on the page. • Research Tip: “Never research one fact at a time: twin it with another, related fact and see how they help each other.” • Secondary characters quite like appearing more than once. • Make your major event happen at exactly half way; that's when the book starts turning for home. • Make every chapter complete- and a cliffhanger. • If there’s a fight, we have to feel the blows. • When did you last steal from someone? And what was it? A pen? A diamond necklace? And why did you do it? Now write about it. • Who was the last person who stole anything from you? Did you know them? If you did – recapture your feelings at the theft. Now write it. • Who is the person you most dislike in your life? Study them and ask yourself why you dislike them. Now you have an interesting character. • Make one of your characters very irritating – e.g., someone who only speaks in questions. Always. Never changes. Just - Questions. • Potent Memory Dept.: What was the first food that you truly loved? If you have a meal scene, have your characters answer that question. • Writing Tip: Take your three primary worries and give them to three characters. Watch how they address or resolve the problems. • If your protagonist is about to tell a major lie – have the second untruth ready because he/she will need it. A lie has only one leg. • Writing a historical novel? Choose a tangential figure – a prince’s accountant; a gunslinger’s daughter. Make theirs the worthwhile life. • The Golden Rules: Are we (a) grabbed; (b) held; (c) rooting for someone? If we’re not – you’d better rewrite! • Writing Tip - names of characters: If you haven’t given your protagonist the best name possible, they’ll tell you if you listen carefully. • Writing Tip: It's all right for the characters in a novel to be optimistic or pessimistic. It's not all right for the novelist. • Writing Tip: The simpler the style the brighter the light – but light, especially when bright, has complexity at its core. • Writing Tip: In theory you shouldn't need italics for emphasis; your syntax and composition should do it. In practice it adds punch. • Writing Tip: Try this: Make one chapter happen entirely inside; the next entirely outside; the third inside and outside. • To check if a strand of your story works: Pull out the chapters of that strand: Tie them together as a single tale: See how it hangs. • Writing tip: Lose the “-st” bit – i.e., “whilst” and “amongst” are great-grandma stuff – you’ll sound prissy. • If you say somebody is boring – we’ll be bored, unless you amuse us with their boringness. • Writing Tip: Suck out a difficult bit of draft and write it as a separate story. Then slide it back into the main text. Note the new energy! • Don’t murder all your darlings – those great phrases are part of your talent. • Short sentences generate tension; long sentences generate a mood of reflection. • One detail – of a character or a room – is often enough. • Make sure we have somebody to hate. • Make us feel lonely when we’ve finished reading. |
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