How I write. Lesson 5

Lesson 1

Lesson 2

Lesson 3

I have been asked in replies on my blogs, in chat and in person. I've been asked to give tutorials and teach people how to write. I've thought about it, I've considered it and now I've started it.

I'm not sure I can teach YOU how to write like I do, but I can tell you how I developed my own style and maybe, hopefully, that will help you develop yours.

These are my books. It took two years to write my first book - and another nine years to publish it.

My Amazon.co.uk page

Google (free use) images and Pixabay

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When I start writing, I don’t always know what the story is going to be about, what genre it’s going to be, or which characters will make an appearance. Most of the time, I don’t even have characters yet. So, where to get some from?

I’ve yet to find any decent characters on Amazon… I guess I’ll just have to make them up myself.

I like to ‘people watch’. I’m fortunate enough to have had a number of jobs where I can do exactly that. And I believe I’ve honed the skill.

My favourite job for ‘people watching’ has always been that of ‘Door Supervisor’, ‘Bouncer’, ‘Front of House Staff’.

I get to chat to people and most of all, I have to stand and watch people. What an awesome job! I still practice that whenever I go out… it’s a good habit to have if you’re a writer.

If you want to have a go at ‘people watching’, it’s easy. Go to a crowded place, find a position where you can be out of everyone’s way, yet still see the crowds. Stand still and watch the world going past.

It works just about anywhere – as long as there are people to see. I had a bit of fun in Madame Tussauds once… seeing how many people ‘studied me’ before I moved.

If you like, you can also flex your story-telling muscles and make up stories about the people you’re watching.

The young woman with a baby in the pushchair?

Oh that’s easy. She’s a witch; and the ‘baby’ is a princess she’s kidnapped and cast a spell to regress her back to childhood. The princess can still speak, that’s why the witch has placed an enchantment on the pacifier in her mouth so the princess can never spit out the pacifier and scream for help.

The woman and her two misbehaving kids? They also have a tale to tell. She is on the run from her abusive father. Her husband is missing and the kids miss him – so does she. Her father took her in when her husband went missing, as an act of charity, but over the weeks, he’s become controlling and scary. The kids aren’t allowed out in the garden to play and he went absolutely mad at them when they tried to open the shed…

There’s a weird, sickly-sweet smell, like decaying meat hanging round the place and she just cannot find it to clean it. No word from her husband… the last time she heard from him, he was calling round to collect some money someone owed him, no best not to tell her who it was…

Describe the characters you choose as though you have them right before you wherever you are, writing. If you can fix the character in your mind’s eye, you can describe them better. I try to choose a character’s looks from someone I know – sometimes I even steal their personality too – take a look at my books, there are a few people I know in there.

Height is reasonably important, as is build. Hair and eye colour? Only if you think it adds to the story. Clothes? Nah… (best not to have them naked, but don’t go all Fashion Week on your reader and describe every stitch in minute detail… unless you’re actually writing about Fashion Week…)

The most important things to describe (for me) is that slight limp he has when he turns left, like his hip slips out of its socket. Then we need to know what caused that, don’t we?

Anomalies, quirkiness, something ‘not quite right’ or something extraordinary, it all needs description and until you have a credible character, you won’t have a story.

Then, I figure out whether the character is going to be loved, loathed or ‘just there’. All characters should add to the story, even if it’s just a bit of background colour. The guy that’s shoved out of the way as the limping man runs past, he stands up straight, fists clenched to his sides, chin up - does that say ‘ow, you hurt me when you pushed me’? Or does it say “HEY! Asshole!”?

The advice of ‘Show, don’t tell.’ Is great advice, but it takes a while to remember to use it and even longer to perfect it.

I use body language when I can, because a clenched fist can mean a number of things – anger, violence, ‘I’ve had enough of your shit’, or passion – if the fist is pressed to the owner’s teeth… for example.

Eyes can tell a lot about emotion too. Glaring, eyes part-closed, hard wrinkles set at the sides of the eyes. Wide-open stare, glistening eyeballs, teardrops threatening to fall from the bottom lids.

Then you have the body – hunched over, head down, shuffling slowly – injured or trying not to be seen? Shoulders back, chin out, legs shoulder-width apart, hands raised in fists – does that look like a ‘welcome in!’ stance?

See what people do in any given situation. If someone walks in front of them in the crowded place you’re watching, does the person step sharply to one side, avoiding the person, but giving a muttered sentence of abuse as they depart, or are their reflexes so slow and hampered (drugs or drink) that they bump into the person and almost fall over, only keeping upright because of the person behind catching them?

I try to avoid actions that can be misconstrued and accidentally humorous – she rolled her eyes at him. He stooped, picked them up, wiped them off and rolled them back…

He threw his hands in the air but they dropped onto the ground because he couldn’t catch them…

Of course, all these mistakes and ‘OOOPS!’ moments can be caught when you edit and even if you miss them, they should be caught by your editor. Try not to let them go and get caught by your readers though – there are websites filled with ‘Worst sentences in literature’ and the like.