He shot him twice in the back, and the figure jerked each time. Petrovitch watched the man start to turn, then slip heavily to one knee. The strange green-glowing eye of night vision rested on him. Their guns came around, and Petrovitch fired first, straight into his face.
(From ‘Equations of Life’, Simon Morden)
Science Fiction writer Simon Morden writes violent novels. Another War (2005), was shortlisted for a World Fantasy Award, and 2007 saw the publication of The Lost Art which has been shortlisted for the 2009 Catalyst Award for best teen fiction. He’s currently writing his next novel, ‘Equations of Life’, which he tells us is set in a future London packed with refugees, armoured nuns, Stalin-lookalikes, and seriously hard-core science. So how does he do it?
Continue reading ‘Writing violence – ‘easier than sex’’
In her third and final post on Writing Historical Fiction, RS Downie tells us why using fact in fiction is like wearing underwear. Ruth is the author of Ruso and the Disappearing Dancing Girls (’Medicus’ in the USA) and Ruso and the Demented Doctor (’Terra Incognita’ in the USA), the first in a series of historical crime novels set in Roman Britain.
Research is Like Underwear…
In 1541, if you came from London, you considered Yorkshire to be a barbarian land. Once you turned off the Great North Road, the journey to York was a ‘wretched track’. The woods contained boar and wildcat and the locals still shared thatched hovels with their cattle.
Continue reading ‘Writing historical fiction 3 – using fact in fiction’
Today RS Downie continues with her second post on Writing Historical Fiction (if you missed the first on creating your historical world, why not check it out first). Ruth is the author of Ruso and the Disappearing Dancing Girls (’Medicus’ in the USA) and Ruso and the Demented Doctor (’Terra Incognita’ in the USA), the first in a series of historical crime novels set in Roman Britain.
You can’t please all of the people…
Here’s a confession: the earliest edition of my first book contained a wrong Latin ending. I only found this out when it was firmly and very publicly corrected by a reviewer in a national newspaper. It was a small thing – just two letters – but as he said, it cast doubt on the rest of the research. He said nice things as well, and later chose the book as one of his top thrillers for Christmas, but at the time I barely noticed the positive points. I was mortified. I felt I’d let everyone down. I lay awake fantasising about recalling all the copies so I could set fire to them and then fling myself on the pyre.
Continue reading ‘Writing historical fiction 2 – doing the research’
Welcome to the first of three guest posts by RS Downie on writing historical fiction. Ruth is the author of Ruso and the Disappearing Dancing Girls (‘Medicus’ in the USA) and Ruso and the Demented Doctor (‘Terra Incognita’ in the USA), the first in a series of historical crime novels set in Roman Britain. Now over to Ruth:
Twenty years ago I knew nothing at all about historical fiction except that some of the novels I’d enjoyed had been set in the past. I’ve learned a great deal since then, mostly from other writers and sometimes from my own mistakes. I still have much to learn and frequently don’t practise what I preach – but if you too are fascinated by the past and want to set your story there, I hope you’ll find some useful pointers in this series of articles. If you have anything to add or questions to ask, feel free to post your comments below.
Continue reading ‘Writing historical fiction 1 – creating your historical world’
There’s a new writer in the world of children’s fiction and her name is Kelsey Drake. Kelsey’s first published book is Scordril, a novel for the 9 – 12 age group. It’s the story of a lair of dragons who are under attack from the sinister ‘night dragons’, wielding an ancient and dangerous magic. But what the readers of ‘Scordril’ may not realise is that Kelsey Drake is actually two people: Eleanor Patrick and Sue Brownless. The Crafty Writer asked Eleanor and Sue about their experience of co-authoring and self-publishing their first novel.
Eleanor Patrick
Sue Brownless
Continue reading ‘Co-authoring: when two become one’
Last week freelance writer and guest blogger Suzanne Elvidge gave us some tips on how to find work in the potentially lucrative field of report writing. This week she shows us how to go about producing the copy.
Continue reading ‘Report writing – the nuts and bolts’
Have you ever read a book – fiction or non-fiction – in which you felt you had been transported to another world? You could almost feel it, taste it, touch it and smell it. How did the writer achieve that?
- They used their senses.
- They focused on a few choice details.
- They used imagery.
- They established power relations between the narrator / character / reader and their environment.
Continue reading ‘Creating a Sense of Place’
Most writers, including myself, tend to write their way into an article or story. We only ‘warm up’ by about the second or third paragraphs. On editing, you will hopefully see that your first paragraph can usually be scrapped, or incorporated elsewhere in the piece. For non-fiction writing, a good tip is to consciously start with a who? where? when? what? working intro, then give it some sparkle on the rewrite. For more on the 4W intro, see my post on How to Write a Feature Article and for fiction intros see how to write a short story, although it can equally be applied to novel openings.
For some excellent tips on creating the perfect intro visit Laurie Pawlik-Kienlen’s article on Writing Great Leads in which she encourages you to shock, challenge or provoke your readers into reading on. Laurie, along with yours truly, is one of the regular contributors to the Write On blog carnival.
Fantasy is probably the most popular of all children’s genres; however much of it is still read and enjoyed by adult readers. One only has to look at the highly successful Harry Potter series to see how much influence this type of writing has. But as a writer you need to be aware of a few facts and conventions of the genre before trying your hand at writing fantasy.
Image courtesy of ginieland Continue reading ‘Writing Fantasy Fiction’
This month’s book is Jed Rubenfeld’s The Interpretation of Murder. For those of you new to The Crafty Writer, once every month or two we discuss a best-selling book from a writer’s perspective. We divide our discussion under the following headings:
I’ll make some initial observations and pose suggested questions for discussion. Some of our regular book club participants are published authors themselves, so it’s a great opportunity to share their knowledge and insight. You don’t have to do anything to join other than pitch up and leave your comments and observations below. If you haven’t got a copy of the book yet you can buy it through The Crafty Writer Bookshop (in the book club category) and we will get a small commission that keeps the Book Club and all the information on this website free. Continue reading ‘Book Club: The Interpretation of Murder’
Welcome to The Crafty Writer, published by Fiona Veitch Smith, a freelance journalist, editor, author, playwright, screenwriter and writing teacher. This site is full of information and resources to help you to become a better writer. 
