I want to write a popular book, the greatest novel ever written. Where do I start? What is the secret? Why do certain names like Stephen King and James Patterson draw crowds of people? Why would someone read fiction by Clive Cussler and nobody wants to read my book? Name recognition is a wonderful boon to those who have it - but they are a minority to be sure. Thousands of great novels lay undiscovered and writers abandon great works because they need to get a "real" job that pays the bills. Life is unfair.
Are you a writer, trying to break into this competitive space? Do you have a great idea; perhaps a partly finished or even (gasp) a completely finished piece of fiction and you don't know how to proceed to the next level? I am happy to tell you that you should be very happy to be alive in the 21st century. Popular books are not the only ones being read today, and unknown writers have endless opportunities to have their work discovered. Fiction is just as popular as ever, even if book sales don't show it. What could be the cause?
Online novels. Online reading is one of many chances for readers to discover great fiction without going to a book store and often without spending any money at all. There are apps also, there are downloadable e-books, there are lending platforms that act like digital libraries and share works of authors. Online fiction is simply a wonderful advantage of living in the technology age that we live in. For readers it really is the best time to be alive. Imagine only 100 years ago, people would share books at school due to lack of family funds. And today we can find thousands of books that fit in a single device smaller than a single novel. Ah, what a time to be alive!
For you, the writer, this is very good news also. We don't have to think about 100 years ago - we can just go back twenty years. If you were and author twenty years ago and you wrote a fabulous piece of science fiction you had completed only the very first part of an arduous journey. You had to contact an agent and a publisher and get tests printed and decide on how large the scale of printing would be - first run, second run, etc. That was IF you could get someone to read it and agree to publish it for you. Enter the internet. Today you can produce literature and post it immediately. You can even post on some websites on a schedule; so you produce a chapter each week and you can get instant feedback from readers around the world.
You, the writer, can find an audience for your work by making it available online. Online fiction may never make you rich, in fact I love to find the free stuff - I'm not interested in paying for untested works. I want to read a novel and if I like it then I have made a friend. The author will be on my list and I will read their next book and their next. That is what makes literature great, the reading of fiction - not the paying for fiction. Find some fiction to read online. Read a free book. And then go write one yourself. It could be my next great read.
Thursday, March 8, 2018
Do you like classic novels
Do you like classic novels? If you do not like classics, what other novel books do you like to read? Perhaps you like to read mystery fiction, crime fiction or romantic fiction. How many classics are in your library? I have met people who can quote famous lines from classic novels, can tell you the personalities of the main characters and how the plot twists and turns. Unfortunately, I am not one of those people.
I have to be honest that I do not seem to be able to remember the ending of any book that I have read. Some people (like my husband) seem to have a photographic memory and can recall every book and movie they have ever read or watched. I am not that gifted.
One story I do like though is a classical story that is popular in Canada, namely, Anne of Green Gables. This fiction novel was written in 1908 by the Canadian author Lucy Maud Montgomery. It is a story of a young orphan girl that was adopted by an elderly brother and sister living in Prince Edward Island, located in the Maritime Provinces of Canada. Anne is a redheaded, freckle-faced girl who loves to read and uses her imagination to see the best in any situation. She uses big, descriptive words and her spontaneous character makes me laugh. The story follows her life from adoption to adulthood.
Many movies and TV series have been produced about Anne. Some are solely based on the novel; others are loosely based on it. For someone like myself, I am quite happy reading or watching any version of the story whereas others find it extremely frustrating if the production does not adhere to the book. My “movie amnesia” keeps me very content with watching whatever version friends want to watch.
Another classic that I read a number of years ago was A Tale of Two Cities. The author is Charles Dickens. It is a historical novel (though you could also say that it is romance fiction or suspense fiction) set in London and Paris before and during the French Revolution. When I began to read this novel, I almost did not make it past the first three pages! The description of a carriage being pulled through mud almost made me quit! The book was quite thick and though it is a historical classic, I couldn’t bear to read something so slow and painful.
However, much to my surprise, once I got past the first few pages and my imagination began to work, I found myself unable to put it down. The ending escapes me but I know that I enjoyed it much more than I thought I ever would.
This has taught me that a classic is very much a classic no matter how it is presented. Whether it is by novel only or if it is turned into a movie or TV series, a classic stands the test of time. By reading famous novels or by watching highly acclaimed productions, you are taken to a different point in time and can learn about the customs and thinking of people of that era. And you become a more rounded out individual that can speak intelligently about well-known literature.
No matter what your reading preference, I would encourage you to read a classic novel, either on-line or paperback. You will enjoy it as many others have done for years before you.
I have to be honest that I do not seem to be able to remember the ending of any book that I have read. Some people (like my husband) seem to have a photographic memory and can recall every book and movie they have ever read or watched. I am not that gifted.
One story I do like though is a classical story that is popular in Canada, namely, Anne of Green Gables. This fiction novel was written in 1908 by the Canadian author Lucy Maud Montgomery. It is a story of a young orphan girl that was adopted by an elderly brother and sister living in Prince Edward Island, located in the Maritime Provinces of Canada. Anne is a redheaded, freckle-faced girl who loves to read and uses her imagination to see the best in any situation. She uses big, descriptive words and her spontaneous character makes me laugh. The story follows her life from adoption to adulthood.
Many movies and TV series have been produced about Anne. Some are solely based on the novel; others are loosely based on it. For someone like myself, I am quite happy reading or watching any version of the story whereas others find it extremely frustrating if the production does not adhere to the book. My “movie amnesia” keeps me very content with watching whatever version friends want to watch.
Another classic that I read a number of years ago was A Tale of Two Cities. The author is Charles Dickens. It is a historical novel (though you could also say that it is romance fiction or suspense fiction) set in London and Paris before and during the French Revolution. When I began to read this novel, I almost did not make it past the first three pages! The description of a carriage being pulled through mud almost made me quit! The book was quite thick and though it is a historical classic, I couldn’t bear to read something so slow and painful.
However, much to my surprise, once I got past the first few pages and my imagination began to work, I found myself unable to put it down. The ending escapes me but I know that I enjoyed it much more than I thought I ever would.
This has taught me that a classic is very much a classic no matter how it is presented. Whether it is by novel only or if it is turned into a movie or TV series, a classic stands the test of time. By reading famous novels or by watching highly acclaimed productions, you are taken to a different point in time and can learn about the customs and thinking of people of that era. And you become a more rounded out individual that can speak intelligently about well-known literature.
No matter what your reading preference, I would encourage you to read a classic novel, either on-line or paperback. You will enjoy it as many others have done for years before you.
How to begin to write
Recently, I was thinking back to my English classes at high school. For one particular assignment, my English teacher instructed us to write about some event in our past. We were only 13 years old at the time; not a lot of years lived to have acquired too many interesting events in our life, but all of us were able to find something to write about without much trouble.
I chose to write about some of my experiences from when I was six years old and living on an island in the West Indies. As I wrote, everything was vivid in my memory: the sights, the sounds, the smells, the tastes and the people. And for once in my school days, the words just flowed effortlessly from my pen. I wrote about the games that I played and that other older children played; the different activities at a school fair that my sister and I attended one afternoon; some of the culture and habits of the local people and so forth.
One reason why I remember that assignment so well is that even though I thought that other assignments I had done in my English class had been better than that one, my English teacher did not. He gave me the highest mark I ever received in his class.
This reminds me of the advice given to writers to “write what is in you!” To take some events that have happened to you, or friends and family, and turn it into a fiction novel. To develop a character in your fiction writing and endow him or her with habits and personality traits of people you know or have met.
But isn’t that cheating you may ask? Not at all! Many writers do it! Just think of the James Bond fiction series. Its author Ian Fleming is said to have given several of his own personal traits to the main character James Bond and to have based him on one or more persons that he knew!
The crime fiction novelist, the late Dick Francis was a former steeplechase jockey so it is no surprise that when he became a writer, his novels centered on horse racing.
One of my favorite authors, John Grisham, was a practicing lawyer, so it is no surprise that he wrote many legal thrillers. The list could go on, but whether you read romantic fiction, suspense fiction, horror fiction, crime fiction or mystery fiction, there is a very good chance that the author is basing some of his characters or some of the events on people or events he or she knows or has experienced personally. And there is no harm in that! Just like when I wrote my school assignment, I could write far more vividly because I was writing about something I knew, not that I had to devise or imagine. The lesson I learned at that time: when you write about what you know, it can add life to your writing!
Sometimes, though, life can be stranger than fiction. A friend of mine knew one man who had a particularly horrible experience in one country in Africa, which ended up with him fleeing for his life. He later wrote a fiction novel based on his experiences, sent it to a publisher and received back a message saying that they could not publish his novel as, though the plot was excellent, it was too incredible for people to believe! If he had the Internet when he wrote it, at least he could have written his book as an online novel!
So there is no need to reinvent the wheel. As a saying goes, “there is nothing new under the sun!” Keep drawing on your personal experiences and knowledge as a source for your own fiction writing and see how this brings your writing to life!
I chose to write about some of my experiences from when I was six years old and living on an island in the West Indies. As I wrote, everything was vivid in my memory: the sights, the sounds, the smells, the tastes and the people. And for once in my school days, the words just flowed effortlessly from my pen. I wrote about the games that I played and that other older children played; the different activities at a school fair that my sister and I attended one afternoon; some of the culture and habits of the local people and so forth.
One reason why I remember that assignment so well is that even though I thought that other assignments I had done in my English class had been better than that one, my English teacher did not. He gave me the highest mark I ever received in his class.
This reminds me of the advice given to writers to “write what is in you!” To take some events that have happened to you, or friends and family, and turn it into a fiction novel. To develop a character in your fiction writing and endow him or her with habits and personality traits of people you know or have met.
But isn’t that cheating you may ask? Not at all! Many writers do it! Just think of the James Bond fiction series. Its author Ian Fleming is said to have given several of his own personal traits to the main character James Bond and to have based him on one or more persons that he knew!
The crime fiction novelist, the late Dick Francis was a former steeplechase jockey so it is no surprise that when he became a writer, his novels centered on horse racing.
One of my favorite authors, John Grisham, was a practicing lawyer, so it is no surprise that he wrote many legal thrillers. The list could go on, but whether you read romantic fiction, suspense fiction, horror fiction, crime fiction or mystery fiction, there is a very good chance that the author is basing some of his characters or some of the events on people or events he or she knows or has experienced personally. And there is no harm in that! Just like when I wrote my school assignment, I could write far more vividly because I was writing about something I knew, not that I had to devise or imagine. The lesson I learned at that time: when you write about what you know, it can add life to your writing!
Sometimes, though, life can be stranger than fiction. A friend of mine knew one man who had a particularly horrible experience in one country in Africa, which ended up with him fleeing for his life. He later wrote a fiction novel based on his experiences, sent it to a publisher and received back a message saying that they could not publish his novel as, though the plot was excellent, it was too incredible for people to believe! If he had the Internet when he wrote it, at least he could have written his book as an online novel!
So there is no need to reinvent the wheel. As a saying goes, “there is nothing new under the sun!” Keep drawing on your personal experiences and knowledge as a source for your own fiction writing and see how this brings your writing to life!
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