Now I’m ‘officially’ a screenwriter, with my very first commission in the can. Here’s what I’ve learnt so far about the writer’s role in the filmmaking industry:

1. The first draft is just the beginning.

   From first notes to the draft I finally submitted to Northern Film and Media, there were four rewrites. After that there were an additional two rewrites at the advice of NFM’s script development officer. Then after the film was accepted for the programme, I had to do a further two rewrites to incorporate feedback from the UK Film Council. Surprisingly, both the producer (FNA Films) and the director, Michael Steel, were very happy with the script I presented them and no changes were suggested. This, I’ve been told, is very unusual, so most writers need to be prepared to do further drafts to incorporate the producer and the director’s vision.  However, I had to do a further two rewrites in order to pacify a location provider who felt the script was too violent - they also asked me to cut out the smoking! So that is 10 rewrites of one short, four-minute film. Phew!

2. Filmmaking is a collaborative process

   The final product that was viewed last week was not just ‘my’ film. Yes, I provided the blueprint, as it were, but the end result was an amalgamation of a number of people’s visions. Michael Steel has just as much right to refer to it as ‘his’ as it is mine. The look and feel of the piece might have been suggested by my script, but the overall impact depends just as much upon the director’s filming, editing and sound choices. Oh, and let’s not forget the actors! Thanks particularly to Freya Parker and Richard Riddell. Freya was not like anything I had imagined the lead female to be - in spirit or looks. She had a completely different interpretation of the character from mine - but it was just as valid, and it worked very well. Richard’s interpretation was just as I had imagined - but if it wasn’t, there’s nothing that I could do about it. If you’re a writer who fears losing control of your vision, this may not be the right medium for you.



3. Communication with the writer is not the filmmaker’s priority

   My main gripe with this whole process is that I have frequently felt side-lined. I have struggled to find out what my role now is, if any, in regard to the film. Everyone has been kind and polite, but I still don’t feel that I have the answers to my ‘what now’ questions. Is it worth quitting over? Absolutely not. If that’s just the way the business is, then I need to deal with it and move forward. Once the script has been ’signed off’ essentially my role is over. Busy directors and producers don’t have time to hold a new writer’s hand. Do I wish it was different? Of course I do. Apparently ‘Enemy Lines’ is now going to be shown at a series of film festivals, I’ll let you know which ones as soon as I find out myself.

4. It’s a man’s world

   I was one of only two female writers selected for the programme. NFM state up front that they are looking for writers and directors from different ethnic and gender backgrounds, so I don’t think it’s their fault, particularly because most of the selection panel were female. Perhaps women just didn’t apply. Both of the pieces by women writers this year were quite masculine in theme. Was that just a coincidence? For next year’s scheme I’ve submitted a piece dealing with women’s issues; we’ll see how it goes.

5. I’m not going to make much money - yet!

   Like most forms of writing, screenwriting, certainly when you’re starting out, is not very lucrative. After 12 months of work I have not added to my bank balance through this film, but the professional leg-up I have received is worth far more to me right now than hard cash. If you’re in it for money, you’re in it for the wrong reason.   (For a reality check on what writers really earn, check out my post and the following animated discussion on Can You Earn Money from Writing?).

Well, to quote a screenwriting icon: ‘That’s all folks!’ Next time I’ll be looking at the importance of writing visually and cutting back on dialogue.

So what are you waiting for? Get writing! If you need some tips on writing from life, check out this session in our free non-fiction writing course.

TCW: You mentioned that there is a growing niche market for fiction aimed at crafters in the US. Could you expand on that? Is it just limited to mysteries or are other genre represented too?

JCS: I’ve been told that craft cozies are flying off the shelves in US bookstores. The reason is simple: there are more crafters than readers of mysteries here in the States. This offers a huge growth market. Since the bulk of marketing and promoting is the author’s responsibility, it’s very effective to target a secondary niche market such as crafters.

TCW: Were you aware of this market before you wrote Paper Scissors Death or did you just write a mystery and then slot it into a market?

JCS: I knew that to break into the world of fiction I had to give a publisher a compelling reason to look hard at me—and a great manuscript is only part of that offering. Terrific books get turned down by agents and by editors every day. I knew scrapbooking inside and out, having written seven “how to” books on the topic. So I spotted that “hole” in the market, a place where I could take my experience and shine.(BTW, Joanna is already an established non-fiction writer - TCW).

TCW: Did you get an agent or did you send your manuscript directly to a publisher?

JCS: I pitched my book to my agent, and then I walked right over to pitch it to my acquiring editor. (I was at a writer’s conference that I’d attended expressly to do these pitches.) First the agent said, “Yes,” and then the editor did, too.

TCW: How has your background in scrapbooking helped you in marketing and promoting the book?

JCS: Of course, my knowledge of that special niche - scrapbooking - with so many potential readers is important, but also my contacts in the industry, my understanding of how the industry works, my relationships with vendors who can open doors for me, my reputation with reviewers and industry publications, and my knowledge of the craft are all of value to my publisher. And I have a fabulous publisher Midnight Ink who really believes in me and gives my promotional suggestions consideration.

TCW: Did you mention this as a USP when approaching publishers?

JCS: Absolutely. I included a marketing plan in my book proposal. After all, if given the choice between two authors - say, you have one who is willing, able, and dedicated to promoting her own work, and one you have to teach about the process - which one would you choose?

TCW: For those who haven’t read the book yet, there are non-fiction style elements included in the narrative as nearly every chapter ends with a scrapbooking tip list. Is this characteristic of ‘craft cozy’ fiction?

JCS: There are six sets of craft tips at the end of chapters, and 43 chapters, plus a prologue and epilogue. Including tips or techniques or patterns is characteristic of craft cozies. (And most scrapbookers would say there aren’t enough tips!)

TCW: I must say, as a non-scrapbooker, I found myself skipping those sections to get back to the ‘real’ story. Did you realise this might be a danger with promoting the book outside the scrapbook ‘ghetto’?

JCS: As a writer of this series, I straddle the two worlds: scrapbooking and non-scrapbooking. My goal is to write books interesting and rich enough to appeal to non-crafters. My litmus test is readers like you. I want scrapbooking - and the tips to be laignaippe. My fundamental philosophy is “always add value.”

TCW: How much of the ethos behind writing the book is evangelistic in the sense of trying to ‘convert’ readers to scrapbooking?

JCS: None. I love scrapbooking, and perhaps after learning more about it, a reader might decide to give it a go. But that isn’t my goal. I am simply being true to my character, who is overly-enthusiastic about the hobby. If I had portrayed her as anything else, she would not be who she is.

TCW: There is some fairly overt product placement in the book. Again, is this characteristic of craft cozy fiction? Do the named products and services pay for inclusion? Do they contribute towards publication costs? Or do they simply buy ad space?

JCS: I wrote the book using product names for credibility’s sake. They are somewhat of a code that tells scrapbookers, yes, the author really does scrapbook. When I say, “She’s not the sharpest craft knife in the Cropper Hopper,” any scrapbooker would chuckle and know EXACTLY what I mean. No one paid for inclusion.

TCW: Some writers would see this as selling out your editorial independence and artistic integrity. Others would see it as a realistic approach to finding commercial partners to help publish work. What can you contribute to this debate?

JCS: I would never sacrifice my integrity or my story for the sake of inclusion. However, given the choice between purposely not including names, and including them, why not? Isn’t avoiding inclusion a type of selling out? After all, you are letting an outside force determine what you write. You are “writing around” (that’s what we called it in journalism school) the brand. That can strain credulity as much as over-inclusion.

TCW: At the end of the book, you keep the door open for a sequel or even a series. Did you consciously set out to do this or was this a decision made with your publisher after they accepted your manuscript?

JCS: I pitched the publisher on writing a series. I loved the characters, believed they could grow, and that I would be happy spending time with them.

TCW: Do you think you may try your hand at other genre in the future? If so, which?

JCS: I still love non-fiction, and I’d like to write something with a historical bent. I am a writer. That’s what I do. That’s who I am. That’s how I process the world. I just love to write. I’ve worn the letters off my keyboard. I can’t imagine a day without writing … it’s too bleak.

TCW: If writers would like to explore the craft cozy fiction market further, can you recommend any websites or other resources?

JCS: I suggest they visit my website. They can also check out the blog I share with other authors of craft cozies - killerhobbies.blogspot.com.

TCW: Thanks Joanna! Happy writing.

Occasionally poachers turn into gamekeepers, but few hold down both jobs at the same time. I’ve been a freelance journalist for 15 years, selling ideas to a variety of newspapers and magazines both in the UK and abroad. But for the last 10 years, I’ve combined my freelancing with a part-time job as a commissioning editor at a national newspaper.

So, to keep the countryside metaphor running, I see things from both sides of the fence. I understand and share the joys and tribulations of both freelances and editors. I know the frustration of spending hours, sometimes days on a pitch only to have it dismissed by an editor within seconds or, worse, get no response at all. Likewise, I know how tiresome it can be to wade through hundreds of pitches a week from freelances who seem never to have read your newspaper section.

There are no definitive rights and wrongs to successful pitching. Most of what you’re about to read is just my take on the subject: what I’ve found to be successful along with my own pet likes and dislikes. At the end of the day, commissioning editors are (mostly) human beings with different styles, opinions, backgrounds, prejudices and hang-ups. And the more you build up a relationship with them, the easier you’ll find it to tailor pitches to what they want.

 So here goes, in no particular order, my tips for successful pitching:

Know the publication that you’re pitching to inside out.

Make sure you’ve read the last half dozen issues cover to cover so that you’ve got a good handle on its style, feel, philosophy, and most importantly - the features that have already run.

Email your idea, don’t phone.

Most editors are busy, busy people. Assessing pitches is just one part of their job, and most editors like to do it at a time of their choosing - not when a freelance decides they have something to sell.

Pitch a headline, standfirst and summary paragraph.

There’s no need to load your email with much else, other than a few lines at the end about who you’ve written for in the past. Emails with large attachments like pics tend to find themselves deleted on arrival (often by automated spam filters).

Don’t pester.

Unless you’re pitching a news story that needs to run within the next couple of days, leave it a couple of days or even more before emailing or phoning to follow-up your email pitch. No-one likes a stalker.

Don’t overpromise.

If you want to build a long and (hopefully) profitable relationship with a commissioning editor, don’t pretend that you and your writing are something that you’re not. If your work doesn’t match the original pitch, your copy is headed for the spike and you can forget about pitching to that editor again.

Only once you’ve been commissioned should you ask about payment.

And don’t quibble about rates until you have established a track record with that editor.

Hit the deadline.

In my experience, the most successful freelances are not necessarily the best, most eloquent writers. They’re the ones who are professional and dependable. Reliability will improve your chances of more successful pitches.

Don’t hassle your editor.

Once you’ve filed your copy, don’t hassle for a publication date or a copy of the magazine to be sent to you and your granny. Like I said, editors have many things to juggle and you don’t want to get a reputation for being ‘high maintenance’.

Keep on keeping on.

Another trait of a successful freelance is persistence. If you don’t get a response (positive or otherwise) to your first pitch, try another idea, then another, then another. Hopefully with each knock-back you’ll be learning a little more about what the editor is looking for and refine your next pitches accordingly.

Don’t ask for ideas.

Don’t ask an editor “What sort of features are you looking for?” It’s your job to come up with the ideas! Editors aren’t in the business of providing employment for freelances. They’re in the business of filling big expanses of white space. Instead, make it easier for them by thinking of ways in which your feature idea could be packaged and illustrated by suggesting box-outs, panels, sidebars, pics and graphics.

Would you read it?

And always, always ask yourself the question: Is this a feature
that I would want to read myself?

Excellent advice Ian, and sorry I stalked you to get this article!

Up until now I have simply been writing on instinct. I felt like a bit of a fake because I hadn’t read any screenwriting books and wasn’t fully aware of the ‘proper’ way of doing things. I had simply downloaded the free Scriptsmart Gold software from the BBC Writers’ Room and figured it out by trial and error and looking at sample scripts.

However, when the opportunity came to write a full feature film for a competition, I decided I needed a bit of help. I asked some of my more experienced screenwriting friends what books they could recommend and they variously suggested: The Writer's Journey by Christopher Vogler; Story: Substance, Structure, Style and the Principles of Screenwriting by Robert McKee and The Definitive Guide to Screenwriting by Syd Field.

I have heard of all three writers - they’re hailed by some as gurus in the industry. But that made me nervous. Would they be too advanced for me? Would I get caught up in a ‘method’ war between Hollywood heavyweights? I simply wanted a book that covered the basics that I might have missed. For example, when, if ever do you say CUT TO? Do you or do you not number scenes? I wanted an overview of all the methods, rather than just one. So I unashamedly turned to Screenwriting for Dummies by Laura Schellhardt.

Good move. Like all the Dummies series, this was well-written, unpatronising and full of useful information. I got the basics of layout without feeling like an idiot, was encouraged by being told that you could use ‘cards’ (one of my major mental blocks in screenwriting) but I didn’t have to, and feeling affirmed in my less structured approach to the craft. Don’t get me wrong, Schellhardt is strong on structure, but she also allows for more organic writing styles like mine.

I read it before I wrote my screenplay, got going on the script then checked in with the book whenever I got ’stuck’. I then scanned it after I’d completed my first draft to see that I’d got everything in the right place. Her discussion of the infamous ‘Three Act Structure’ was particularly helpful without being annoyingly prescriptive.

So I would highly recommend this book for beginner or floundering screenwriters. It’s also a lot cheaper than the rest! Now I feel ready to read ‘the gurus’ and will report back to you as soon as I have.

1. They used their senses.
2. They focused on a few choice details.
3. They used imagery.
4. They established power relations between the narrator / character / reader and their environment.

Using your senses

This is fundamental to any creative writing. Whether you’re crafting a non-fiction travelogue or describing a fictional world, sight, sound, smell, taste and touch are the primary tools to use when evoking the atmosphere of place. I cover this extensively in my creative writing course, but briefly: it is through senses that we connect with the real world. So by evoking one or more of the senses in a passage, your reader should connect with your written world. That way, reading moves beyond the intellect and into the body itself – it becomes a physical, ‘lived’ experience. This is called somatasthesia - soma (body) + asthesia (feeling).

Consider how Markus Zusak uses the senses of sight and touch to describe the first impressions of a house in this passage from The Book Thief:

The house was pale, almost sick-looking, with an iron gate and a brown, spit-stained door. From his pocket, he pulled out the key. It did not sparkle but lay dull and limp in his hand. For a moment he squeezed it, half expecting it to come leaking towards his wrist. It didn’t. The metal was hard and flat, with a healthy set of teeth, and he squeezed it till it pierced him. Slowly then, the struggler leaned forward, his cheek against the wood, and he removed the key from his fist.

Focusing on details

You cannot and should not describe every last detail of an environment. It will be too much for the reader to absorb and will simply obfuscate your writing. Rather choose a few telling details that are representative of the world you are describing.  When the picture you are sketching is a huge one, it helps to focus the reader on something small. Consider the opening passage from Terry Pratchett’s Wintersmith. Note how simply the mention of a primrose evokes the whole spectrum of spring. Note too that the vastness of the winterscape is thus amplified in contrast to the flowers and the ‘little cluster of thorn trees’.

When the storm came, it hit the hills like a hammer. No sky should hold as much snow as this, and because no sky could, it fell; fell in a wall of white. There was a small hill of snow where there had been, a few hours ago, a little cluster of thorn trees on an ancient mound. This time last year there had been a few early primroses; now there was just snow.

Imagery

Sometimes an environment or the essense of a place can best be described through imagery. A place is more than its physical presence: it is a landscape of meaning, feeling and emotion. Consider this passage from William Horwood’s Duncton Wood:

August is an untidy month in Duncton Wood, when the leaves of the trees have lost both the virgin greenness in which they gloried up until June and their rich rustling maturity, which was one of the pleasures of July. Now they are past their best. Here and there, passing August rain brings one or two leaves down, green but limp, on to the wood’s brown floor to die among the great blowzy fern and insinuating ivy into which they have fallen.

Power relationships with place

The moment a character - fictional or real - comes into contact with a place a power relationship is established. Is that character in control of the environment or does the environment threaten to overpower the character? Sometimes this relationship is neutral, in which case the place is merely a background to the action that takes place within it. However, the best writing allows the environment to contribute to the action or the emotional sub-text of a passage by setting it either ‘above’ or ‘below’ the character in terms of power. For example, a man standing in the face of an avalanche is not in control of his environment. But take that man, give him a flag and perch him on top of a mountain, and he is a conqueror.

Lewis Carrol’s Alice in Wonderland shows a character struggling to establish control over her environment.  Of course, this is a metaphor for a girl trying to establish control over her own life. Similarly, the vastness of the desert in Michael Ondaatje’s The English Patient threatens to overcome Almasy and he only temporarily rises above it when he is in his aeroplane. The bedouin who rescue him from his plane crash are in a neutral or symbiotic relationship with their environment.

In this passage from Alexander McCall Smith’s The No.1 Ladies' Detective Agency, what power relationship exists between the character and the environment? How has Smith communicated this?

Then we went down to the shafts and were shown what to do. They put us in cages, beneath great wheels, and these cages shot down as fast as hawks falling upon their prey. They had trains down there – small trains – and they put us on these and took us to the end of long, dark tunnels, which were filled with green rock and dust. My job was to load rock after it had been blasted, and I did this for seven hours a day. I grew strong, but all the time there was dust, dust, dust.

Can you think of any books that memorably evoke a sense of place? If so, please share them with us in the comment box below.

The White Tiger by Aravind Adiga.
A chaffeur named Balram rises to the top of Indian society after murdering his employer. The story is told in a series of letters from Balram to the Premiere of China.

Girl in a Blue Dress by Gaynor Arnold.
A historical romance about Victorian novelist Alfred Gibson.

The Secret Scripture by Sebastian Barry.
An old woman reminisces about her life from her residence at a mental hospital, but her past may not be as it seems.

From A to X by John Berger.
A’ida writes letters to her husband Xavier while he is imprisoned for insurgency.

The Lost Dog by Michelle de Kretser.
A Henry James scholar searches for his lost dog in the Australian bush while flashbacks detail his affair with an artist.

Sea of Poppies by Amitav Ghosh.
A historical adventure set during the Opium Wars.

The Clothes on their Backs by Linda Grant.
A young Jewish girl growing up in London learns of her family’s mysterious past.

A Case of Exploding Mangoes by Mohammed Hanif.
A fictional take on the death of Pakistani dictator General Zia ul-Haq, who died in a plane crash in 1988.

The Northern Clemency by Philip Hensher.
The tale of two middle-class families in Sheffield, England during the Thatcher era.

Netherland by Joseph O’Neill.
A family struggles to stay together after 9/11.

The Enchantress of Florence by Salman Rushdie.
The worlds of Mughal India and Renaissance Florence collide in this historical epic.

Child 44 by Tom Rob Smith.
Set in 1950’s Soviet Russia, a former war hero must track down a serial-killer who targets children.

A Fraction of the Whole by Steve Toltz.
Narratives intertwine in this story about the bizarre Dean family.

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As some of the people who have signed up for Stellenbosch would prefer to move over to Hout Bay, there are now some places still available for the 13th, so please contact us for registration and payment details.

• author
• genre and content
• research, sources and credibility
• structure
• writing style
• marketing

Author

Bill Bryson is, to date, the author of 18 published books. He started his writing career as a journalist for the Times and the Independent but is best known for his travel writing - including Notes from a Small Island and Notes from a Big Country about his experiences in Britain and the US, respectively. Although American by birth, he now (again) lives in the UK and is a renowned anglophile. He has also written about Europe, Africa and Australia. His witty travelogues have made him a household name. Less well known are his books on language and linguistics, such as Mother Tongue: the English Language. In recent years he has achieved critical acclaim for his A Short History of Nearly Everything (2005), which won the Aventis Prize for the best general science book and a Descartes Award for communication in science. Shakespeare: the World as a Stage (2007) is his latest offering.

In 2005 he became Chancellor of Durham University, succeeding the inimitable Sir Peter Ustinov. Ten years ago, one of Shakespeare’s First Folios was stolen from Durham University in a not-so-daring heist along with other valuable manuscripts including original fragments of Chaucer’s Canterbury Tales. In July 2007 a man walked into the Folger Library in Washington DC and asked them to authenticate a book he claimed to have bought in Cuba. It turned out to be the original Durham Folio. The FBI was contacted, then the Durham Constabulary, who tracked the man down to - of all places - Washington, Durham, UK. Bryson is said to be delighted at the imminent return of the Folio to the university (who have promised to beef up security), but I bet he would have been even more delighted if it had turned up two years ago, so he could have included a whole chapter of it in his book.

For discussion:
How do you think Bryson’s background as a journalist and travel writer helped him in writing this book?

Genre and content

At the risk of being too obvious, this is a non-fiction historical biography. It is a general introduction aimed at a populist rather than academic readership. So any suggestions that it is not furthering academia nor adds little to the scholarly canon on Shakespeare are misplaced - it is not meant to. Like any good historical biography, Bryson is concerned not simply with telling the story of an individual, but rather telling that story within a historical context. A Shakespeare born 200 years earlier or later would not have been the same Shakespeare; he is a product of and a contributor to his times. Which is just as well for Bryson who limits himself in journalistic fashion to only reporting the known facts, and, in his own words, there are so few known facts about Shakespeare that the result is a very slender volume.

This book was written not so much because the world needs another book on Shakespeare, as because this series does. The idea is a simple one: to see how much of Shakespeare we can know, really know, from the record. (Bryson, pp20-21)

Without the extra ‘padding’ of the historical background, there wouldn’t have been much of a book at all. Recreating the world in which Shakespeare lived is Bryson’s real gift - and he does it admirably, in good travel writing style. It is also a history of Shakespearean scholarship, and, I would argue, the latter chapters on the imposter theory and the First Folios are among his best.

For Discussion:
Suggest alternative ways Bryson could have fleshed out the actual biographical content of the book.

Research, sources and credibility

As I’ve already mentioned, this is a populist introduction to Shakespeare rather than an academic treatise. As such, the annotation of sources is not so rigorously observed - there is only a select bibliography given at the end of the book (albeit a respectable canon of 30 or so volumes), with no specific page references. But as I note in my non-fiction course, this is perfectly normal in populist non-fiction writing. And although every single fact is not footnoted and cross-referenced, the writer still needs a sense that the author has done his research and that they are not being fed a bucket of hogwash.

Bryson’s use of sources is journalistic - he piggy-backs on others’ expertise, acting as an interpreter between the academic specialists and the non-academic reader. As a non-fiction writer you don’t necessarily have to be a specialist in a field, just to have the ability to communicate information from one camp to another. However, Bryson does more than merely transpose knowledge, but more of that under structure and style.

Bryson quotes experts in direct speech, giving credence to his version of events. This is a classic journalistic technique. Experts or witnesses are interviewed, but only a fraction of what they say is actually quoted at the point where the writer needs to back up or further illustrate their interpretation of the ’story’. He also liberally scatters references (although not annotated) to previous works throughout the text, giving the reader the impression that he has done his research. But unless we are experts in Shakespeare ourselves, we cannot know whether or not he is reporting them accurately. That is the pact that is set up between a non-fiction writer and reader. In fiction we have the notion of the ‘unreliable narrator’ or the suspicion of an unreliable narrator (see for example next month’s Book Club The Reluctant Fundamentalist) which can add a delicious twist to a novel, but in non-fiction there is no room for this concept.

For discussion:
Do you think Bryson manages to communicate credibility? If so, how does he do it?

Structure

In non-fiction writing one normally has a concept for an article or book and then does some preliminary research to see whether there is enough information to fill the pages. At this point one would then begin to get an idea of structure. The structure of a book or article is what makes one piece of writing on a subject different from another. How is the research going to be communicated? One may already have a thesis and the research will back it up, or, alternatively, another thesis will suggest itself from the research and the original one will be adapted (or even abandoned) and the information structured accordingly.

For discussion:
What is Bryson’s thesis in this book? Do you think he had it before conducting his research or did it emerge from it?

In every body of research there are potentially dozens of books or articles that could be written; your structure will determine what you will include and what you will leave out in order to support or illustrate your thesis.

In Bryson’s Shakespeare, his thesis is that there is not much factual information on Shakespeare, but he will guide us through what there is, separating fact from fiction - this is stated up front in the first chapter ‘In Search of William Shakespeare’. On the way he will introduce us to the world in which Shakespeare lived (chapters 2, 3, 4, 6 & 7) and the literary and academic world that emerged after his death (chapters 8 & 9). Chapter 5, in which evidence for the plays themselves are discussed, is a fulcrum for the whole book. However, I think this is his weakest chapter, as the structure is too loose. One almost has the sense of bullet points rather than a flowing narrative. Overall, Bryson uses a chronological structure with a subject grouping running parallel to the timeline.

For discussion:
‘Chapter five: the plays’ could have been placed elsewhere in the table of contents. Alternatively, the information within it could have been scattered through the other chapters. Why do you think Bryson chose this particular structure? Can you suggest a different structure for the available material? Would you have done it differently?

Style

We’ve already discussed Bryson’s journalistic style, but we haven’t touched on his gift as a travel writer. In this book I see Bryson approaching his subject in the same way he approaches a culture or country in his travelogues. He takes us, the reader, on a journey through a little-known or unknown world. Collectively we are on a tour bus, which at times speeds through the boring areas and stops at those of greater interest. Bryson is a quirky guide (which is the charm of his travelogues) and he highlights the awe-inspiring and the ridiculous, the grand and the petty, in equal measure. Bryson believes that the minutae of life are sometimes of more interest than the sweeping politics of the day; I couldn’t agree more.

In my non-fiction course, I mention how contemporary non-fiction style is far less formal than it was in the past. Gone is the author referring to him or herself as ‘the author’. Bryson himself is ever present - just like a friendly tour guide. And although the facts and only the facts are reported in good journalistic style, he is not averse to commenting on them. In my opinion, that’s what makes this book the gem that it is. His wry asides and witty observations at times made me laugh out loud and turned what could have been simply an informative introduction to the life and times of Shakespeare and a turgid overview of Shakespearean scholarship, into one of the most entertaining books of the year.

For discussion:
In your opinion, what other elements of non-fiction writing style may help to endear this text to the reader?

Marketing

Bryson has become a brand. This was illustrated superbly in 2002 when Penguin re-released their ‘Penguin Dictionary of Troublesome Words’ (first written by Bryson in 1983) and renamed it Bryson's Dictionary of Troublesome Words. Bryson has become synonymous with good writing, good entertainment and a good read. I doubt someone else without Shakespearean credentials could have got away with writing this book. Good branding equals credibility. We trust Bryson. Whether we should or not, is another matter.

For discussion:
Bryson took a risk in moving from his successful travel niche into the general non-fiction market. His first two books seem to show that it’s paid off. Do you think readers will now ‘trust’ Bryson enough with any topic?

Now it’s your turn. Please join in the discussion by leaving your comments below, and don’t forget to vote in our poll:
Note: There is a poll embedded within this post, please visit the site to participate in this post’s poll.

Our next Book Club tile is The Reluctant Fundamentalist by Mohsin Hamid. If you haven’t got a copy of the book yet you can buy it through the The Crafty Writer Bookshop and help keep the Club and all the information on this website free.

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.