NO ONE MINDS WHEN THE INVISIBLE MAN COMES TO DINNER

Good afternoon. Not been blogging that often as there’s quite a few projects in development at the moment.

We’ve added most of the 2010 frontlist to the website now, but still have a couple more covers to have finalised before going up. It’s never an easy job trying to do everything … sure we’ll get there in the end. We’ve also had to reschedule a couple of titles – for various reasons, but generally to get those with more pre-orders out than less commercial ones and avoid having to sell my record collection to fund them. Again, I’m sure we’ll get there in the end.

The past few weeks have been interesting. Robert Endeacott has been developing his latest novel DisRepute: Revie’s England. East Leeds Mag has just published his feature here. We’re currently setting up some signing sessions and the launch and will post details up as they are confirmed. I’m also working on a few other fiction projects until they go into the edit and have really enjoyed getting back into ‘the process’. As a writer, it’s so easy to get lost in your own work and sometimes you cannot see the faults that would perhaps get flagged up and go against you in publication decision-making.

The Guardian did a really helpful list for writers- definitely worth reading, and has wa link to part two at the top of the page. Roddy Doyle dishes out some sound words of wisdom in there. Makes me think about revisiting the novel I was developing during my MA … annoyingly five years on and completely out of date. Still, the thought was there and it was worth paying two and a half grand to become a Master of Arts. There’s a list of tips from Stephen King online somewhere. I used to use it when teaching Creative Writing – one of the most useful lists ever. Here’s a link on a writing blog.

I did a couple of online interviews last year where I was asked my top tip for writers. It’s mainly the usual one – write and don’t give up. Hang on, that’s two. You know what I mean.

What I’m working on at the moment – Dialogue: Listen to how people talk, read your work out – if it is clunky to ‘act’ then it is clunky for anyone to read. Don’t have huge chunks of dialogue, don’t repeat – make every word count. Do you say ‘Get your hands off my beer’ the same way if you repeat it in conversation? Of course not – so don’t write it as so. If you need to repeat something, firstly ask yourself if you REALLY need to, then secondly … deliver it differently. Does ‘No, no’ say anything more than ‘no’? If not, it shouldn’t be there. See De Niro in Goodfellas – I’m sure he says ‘What did I tell you?’ to a few people. It gets more and more menacing in the delivery.

Watch films – see how lines of dialogue are delivered. What makes them more interesting? What are the actors doing – acting, reacting? Who does the camera (narrator?) favour during the exchange? What is their posture, expression? If it’s someone like Brad Pitt, he’ll no doubt scratch the back of his head when he’s agitated – in everything – it’s a tick … give your characters some and bring your dialogue to life! Give them some props … these are the kind of things like the glass of water in The English Patient or Pacino’s bottle of beer early on in Carlito’s Way that sometimes become continuity mistakes. Does your character play with the label of a beer when talking, avoiding eye contact? Does he slam it down to emphasise a point? Props can work well in dialogue and can be useful in conveying subtext … and can also be used as a weapon, should the scene need a bit of violence.

Dialogue is difficult to master, but is one of the most enjoyable aspects about writing, in my opinion. Have fun with it. Think about what you are trying to say … use subtext and say it without saying it … say it in four words rather than ten … make it count. It’s a construction of reality – it isn’t reality. Don’t waste space with a million ummms and errrms.

And like, get writing …