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On Plotting . . .

StirlingStirling
edited May 2008 in - Writing Tales
"I often have a broad idea of what's going to happen, but I don't start with a blue print. It's not architecture, like designing a building and putting it up. It's an organic process, like a plant growing. Events must happen naturally, rather than merely to spice things up, and they have to be credible. That doesn't naturally mean that they are realistic. It means the writer is sufficiently an artist to make you suspend disbelief" (Reginald Hill, author of the Dalziel and Pascoe novels)

"As for content, write what feels natural rather than trying to write for a specific market" (Kate Elton, Editor for Random House)

(Big raspberry being blown you-know-where, from the direction of Scotland - childish but I enjoyed it!)

Comments

  • Stan2Stan2
    Stirling - blowing a raspberry indeed. Sit on the naughty stair!! ;)
  • CarolCarol
    "As for content, write what feels natural rather than trying to write for a specific market"- I thought we were told we HAD TO write for a specific market!
  • StirlingStirling
    I think she was trying to say, write what you would like to read, not write cynically for a market that is 'in vogue' that you don't feel passionately about. She was talking about novels. I think if you write short stories or articles etc you need to consider market, I would never dream of sending my Gothic Myths to Woman's Own!
  • CarolCarol
    Perhaps you're right in that interpretations Stirling.
    I write what I like to write, and it is also what I like reading too. But within that, there are requirements for that market.
  • StirlingStirling
    I do the same Carol. Although I now find my self bored and out growing crime fiction. I'm reading a psychological thriller at the moment, but that is rare now. I'm much more drawn to Gothic, which seems to cross all boundaries. I'm quite interested in turning to historical fiction (the real story behind Robert the Bruce and The Scottish Wars of Independence).

    I think the requirements of the crime genre for me has become too rigid. I don't want to be a 'crime writer' anymore. I'm more interested in stories than genre. It would be interesting to dip my toes into writing about colonialism and the Gothic character of the Scots.
  • CarolCarol
    A few weeks ago at our club we had Elizabeth Chadwick who started out writing historical fiction, but for many years now has been writing her historical novels around actual people- though they may not have the elements you want in your new writing.
    There is a market for Gothic. I'm sure Neph would have some suggestions.
  • StirlingStirling
    I bought one of hers recently, must get round to reading it.
  • CarolCarol
    I have a signed copy of Daughters of the Grail. :)
  • RichardSRichardS
    Getting back to the topic, Stirling, you might be interested to know that Philip Roth stated in an interview in the Paris Review, reprinted in his book 'Reading Myself and Others' that he when he starts a novel he has very little idea of where the book will go. He just writes and writes and sees where it takes him. Sometimes he says it takes him several hundred pages before he gets to something he likes.
  • StirlingStirling
    Interesting.

    I read Roth's Defender of the Faith this semester at University, an amazing writer.
  • RichardSRichardS
    He's the writer I read the most and he never ceases to astonish me. The book I mentioned above is one of his lesser known books and collects together a lot of his earlier essays and interviews. Very interesting if you want to get to know how he ticks.
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