Should I Be Looking In, or Out, of the Box?
by Helen Hollick
Anyone who thinks that writing a book, be it fiction or
non-fiction, is as easy as pie has clearly never written an entire book right
through to ‘the end’. Some of it is easy. Sometimes it seems easy, but when it
comes down to the nitty-gritty of actually getting a book to that final
publication stage the big question ‘why
on earth am I doing this?’ can hang heavy in the mind.
Putting it simply, creating a novel (or a non-fiction book, but
I’m sticking to novels for this article) is hard work. No, it isn’t merely
sitting at a cosy desk tapping away at a keyboard, the words flowing freely
from the mind, down through the arms and fingers and appearing ‘Hey Presto’ on
the screen in front of you. Writing means getting a story written so that it is
a readable, enjoyable, entertaining, gripping, page-turner of a read. Without
any (or actually, all) of those your book will not get beyond being a tiny
piece of plankton floating around in the vast ocean that is the literary world.
Well, for all practical purposes as far as writers are concerned, the vast
ocean that is Amazon. The on-line book store, not the river.
Apart from the actual writing there is the re-write, and the next
re-write. Then several edits and probably a couple more re-writes. Then trying
to find an agent, or giving up on that deciding to go self-published or
‘indie’. Which will include finding a good cover designer, and avoiding all the
pitfalls that can drown an indie writer. Oh, and did I mention the importance
of editing?
Eventually, hopefully, you will end up with a cracker of a novel
which receives dozens of fantastic reviews and sells better than hot cakes. (Authors
excel at day-dreaming.)
‘That all sounds do-able!’
Do I hear you say?
It is. That is what writing is all about, and there are
professional editors, and critiquers, and designers, and publishers
(traditional mainstream or assisted-self-publishing) out there, all eager to
help you. (For a fee, of course.)
But there is a but. A big one.
To write a good novel you need an idea. A plot. You need the
characters to people that plot, to think up who they are, what they do, why
they do it and what happens to them while they are doing it. So you need a box.
A story box in which to store all the ideas pouring into your mind. It can be a
mind box, a little compartment in your brain where you stash your ideas. Or a
spreadsheet, or a word.doc where you jot down your thoughts. It can be a big
box or a little box, a wooden box, a cardboard box… a blue box, a red box… lots
of ‘little boxes all made out of
ticky-tacky and they all look the same’ (who remembers that song from 1962?)
And that thinking can be easy. Or it can be the, ‘Here I get
stuck’ bit, especially if you want to write a series, like I am doing for my Sea Witch Voyages. So then, if you are
stuck, you need to think outside of
the box, don’t you?
The Sea Witch Voyages
are nautical adventures for adults, with a touch of fantasy. Think the first Pirates of the Caribbean movie.
Entertaining fun, with a drop-dead gorgeous pirate for a lead character. Mine
is Captain Jesamiah Acorne, with Tiola, a white witch, as his girlfriend.
Jesamiah is Jack Sparrow, Jack Aubrey, Horatio Hornblower, Indiana Jones,
Richard Sharpe and James Bond all rolled into one.
My tagline is, ‘Trouble
follows Jesamiah Acorne like a ship’s wake.’
Everything for writing the first novel, Sea Witch, came to me as if by magic. Plot, characters, situations
– I wrote the first full draft in just under three months. I had no idea, at
that point, that this was going to be the first of a series, but I had so much
fun writing it, and I had totally fallen in love with Jesamiah, that I had to
write another adventure about him. So Pirate
Code followed which was harder to write because I found the prospect
somewhat daunting – I needed to write a coherent, continuity-correct novel, and
ensure that it was as exciting as the previous one. I think I managed it.
The third, Bring It Close
was easier as it centred around that dastardly pirate, Blackbeard, so my basic plot
was dictated by the events of history. Ripples
In the Sand was the fourth, and the fifth, On the Account, introduced a new character for me to fall for, Maha'dun.
As my Jesamiah says, ‘He is the most
irritating, annoying, confusing, inconsistent, loyal, courageous idiot I know.’
We (Jesamiah and me, and hopefully, more than a few fans) love him because he is all those things.
Now I am working on the sixth, Gallows
Wake. Well, I use the term ‘working on’ somewhat loosely. ‘Thinking about’ is probably more
accurate. No spoilers, but Jesamiah will be in trouble again, this time with a
few old enemies and the British Royal Navy. How Maha'dun appears in it you will
have to wait to find out, after all, Jesamiah believes that he was shot dead at
the end of On the Account...
But I am finding Gallows
Wake a toughie to get started. I have a rough plan, a sort of nautical
chart with the starting point marked on it along with the eventual destination
and various places during the voyage to drop anchor, but that clichéd ‘think
outside the box’ business is bugging me. ‘Thinking outside
the box’ is often given as a tip to help struggling writers. It means to
approach a plot, an idea, that next novel, in an innovative manner. To think of
what is going to happen to your characters in a way you would not have thought
of before. So it means ‘think of clichéd
situations in a way that is no longer clichéd.’ Or so I am told.
And there’s the rub. I think up my rough idea, I ‘chat’ to
Jesamiah as I write and the ideas just come. From where, I know not. I’m
convinced that he whispers them to me. (I am not alone, most writers know for a
fact that their characters exist as real people in an alternative dimension.)
My problem is, Jesamiah has gone off and fallen asleep somewhere. Probably in
or under a cardboard box.
When I am writing I don’t think inside the box, I don’t think
outside of the box. Actually, I don’t know where the darn box is, or even
whether I want a box.
As I am writing about a pirate, and I need him to stop messing
about and get back here to start some work, what I really need is a bottle of rum to lure him in…
Now there’s a novelty – think outside the bottle…
Helen Hollick lives on a thirteen-acre farm in
Devon, England. Born in London, she wrote pony stories as a teenager, moved to
science-fiction and fantasy, and then discovered historical fiction. Published
for over twenty years with her Arthurian Trilogy, and the 1066 era she became a
‘USA Today’ bestseller with her novel about Queen Emma The Forever Queen (UK title A
Hollow Crown.) She also writes the Sea
Witch Voyages, pirate-based nautical adventures with a touch of fantasy.
She has written non-fiction about pirates and smugglers in fact and fiction,
due to be published in January 2019
Newsletter
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Main Blog: www.ofhistoryandkings.blogspot.com
Main Blog: www.ofhistoryandkings.blogspot.com
Twitter:
@HelenHollick
Images via Pixabay
Many people want to write a book but find it harder then they thought but such is life
ReplyDeleteThank you Heidi for inviting me onto your blog - unfortunately I wasn't aware you'd published it - hence my late response, so sorry!
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