Adam Croft's Blog, page 26

The benefits of authors joining a writing group are well-documented. But what about a reading group? Could joining a reading group help you with your writing? Here are five ways it could help you.

See what other books are out there

One of the big benefits of joining a reading group is that it helps you to see what other books are out there, and what is currently popular. A lot of reading groups like to pick books that are current, which can be useful when you’re trying to work out where your own work might fit.

See what committed readers like

It also means you can see what books people tend to like. Of course, you’ll never get complete agreement as tastes in literature are so wide-ranging, but in terms of getting a general feel of what committed readers like to read, it can be very helpful.

Keep up with your own reading

Reading groups are, obviously, also a very good way of getting some reading done yourself. It’s often said that all writers are readers, but when you’re in the midst of writing a novel, it can be all too easy to let your reading fall by the wayside. It’s worth making the effort to keep reading, and if you feel like a bit of discipline would help you do this, a reading group is a good option.

This can also help you build your critiquing skills by looking at what you think works in other people’s books and comparing your views to the others in your group – valuable information for when you’re writing your own book.

Get feedback from people who love to read

If you ask nicely, there’s a good chance your reading group will be willing to read your book for you and offer some feedback. You could either ask if they’d be happy to read an early draft, or perhaps give them a free proof copy in return for giving you an online review to help you build your profile.

Build your base early on

Another benefit of a reading group is that it can be a nice way to start to build a reader base. If they know you and (with any luck) like you, they’ll be more willing to buy your book once it’s published and hopefully recommend it to other people they know. Even if your group only consists of a few people, it all helps.

Often when writers ask for advice on what exactly they should be writing, they are told to write what they know.

On the surface of it, this isn’t bad advice. If you know about something, you’ll be able to write on it with authority and will hopefully be able to make it believable as you’ll know the ins and outs of what goes on in whatever subject you’re tackling in your writing.

However, should you always just write what you know?

I think the answer has to be no. The thing about the world is that there is an awful lot of stuff out there, and there’s no way we can know all of it. In fact, we can only ever know a relatively small fraction of it. If we just write about the things we know about, we’ll be limiting our subject matter considerably.

Then there’s the fact that if you know something really well, it can be hard to bring artistic license into the mix. You can become concerned with getting everything completely accurate and, in doing so, lose something of the magic of storytelling. There’s often something to be said for making some things up as you go along, but making sure you always do what’s best for the story – even if that means losing a little bit of accuracy in terms of facts.

Plus, we’re always learning. Often we learn through our writing and, through that, become better writers along the way.

Writing what we know can be a very good place to start, but if we’re hoping to really make something special out of our writing, it shouldn’t be the only place we go

Not all novelists write crime stories, but crime stories can definitely be useful for all novelists. I think there is something about crime fiction that makes it universal; it’s something that everyone can relate to. It’s not just compelling and interesting for readers, either. It can help writers to develop their craft, no matter what genre they want to write in.

Crafting quality plots

One of the big reasons crime fiction is useful for all writers is the centrality of plot to the genre. Crime novels live and die by the success of their plots. They are typically twisty and surprising and always gripping, and the nature of the genre forces the writer to think carefully about it. Everything needs to make sense and it needs to be believable, no matter how out of ordinary the story in question.

This is something that all writers can relate to. We all want to write stories that are compelling and original, and spending some time thinking through the plot of a crime story can give us a useful insight into structure, suspense and resolution.

A healthy dose of realism

As mentioned above, there is a certain sense of realism about crime fiction that is useful for the vast majority of other writers. This doesn’t mean that it stays away from the far-fetched and hard to believe. Rather, it means that there is something in it that we can all recognise. We might not be familiar with the situations in these novels, but we can certainly empathise with them, and a lot of that is down to the characters.

Crime fiction is well-known for its assorted oddball characters, yet the readers are still able to connect with them. This skill of building a relationship between reader, character and novel is something that can help authors of all genres.

The art of suspense

As suggested above, crime fiction is also famous for its suspense, and the need to build suspense throughout a novel is not just limited to this genre. The best of crime fiction brings in the suspense and doesn’t let up right until the very end – and sometimes not even then. Tricks such as ending chapters on cliff-hangers, giving the characters (and readers) only limited information and introducing threats are things that crime fiction is known for, but they can also apply to other genres.

 

What other lessons do you think writers can learn from crime fiction? And what can other genres bring to crime novels?

Could you summarise your novel in a sentence? You might wonder why you even need to. It’s true that often – perhaps most of the time – a one sentence summary isn’t enough. Luckily, we usually get more space to explain our work.

However, summarising your novel in a single sentence can still be a useful exercise. Here’s why.

Define your work

One of the big reasons is that a single sentence can help you to define what your work is. You have to think carefully about which aspects of your novel to focus on as you won’t be able to put everything into your one sentence. This can be a particularly useful thing to do if you’re currently unsure which genre your novel falls into; the bits you focus on in your sentence can give you important direction in terms of genre.

Hone your ideas

Related to this is the fact that it can help you hone your ideas. What is your novel about, really? What is the big idea at its centre that holds it all together? What are you trying to achieve? If you’re finding it impossible to say what it is your book is about in so short a space, the problem might not be with the sentence – it might be with some of the content of the book.

Sell your novel

Also, we’ve all heard about the fabled ‘elevator pitch’. Say, for instance, that you have stumbled upon the company of a person who could get your book published. You want to impress them, but they have literally seconds before they need to dash off somewhere else. You’ll naturally want to be memorable for all the right reasons, and a compelling, intriguing summary of your novel could help you on your way.

Save it for future use

Finally, a one-sentence summary of your book might not be useful now – but it could be in the future. For instance, let’s say that you’ve currently got an idea for a book but that idea isn’t formed enough for you to start writing yet and you’ve already got another project on the go. Writing a single sentence to summarise your intentions can be a good memory jog when you come back to the idea, and can be a good starting point when it comes to fleshing out the idea.

Even if you are one of those writers who love to have complete silence to write, music can still help your writing. Here are some of the best reasons all writers should love music.

It’s a universal language. Sometimes, you can be having trouble describing something with words, but music can describe things perfectly. Listening to music you love can evoke emotions and thoughts in you that can then make describing a particular event or emotion much easier than it was before.
The potential for inspiration. Like essentially everything else in the world, music is an excellent source of inspiration for writers. Whether you’re a Radio 1 or Radio 3 type of person, it can all be inspiring.
It broadens your mind. It’s often said that children who learn musical instruments or listen to classical music regularly tend to do better in the classroom. It stands to reason that it can’t hurt your writing either, so put on some Mozart and start scribbling.
It opens you to new things. Being willing to listen to different types of music can be beneficial for aspects of your writing. For instance, even though you don’t like jazz, one of your characters might love it. Listening to the music from their POV can give you a different insight, especially when coupled with your own thoughts on the matter.
It’s relaxing. Music can also be a good way to get a break from your writing. Shutting your mind down and focusing solely on the music you’re listening to can give your brain space to process things, such as that tricky plot point you’ve been grappling with all day. It’s soothing and (hopefully) fun, and should leave you feeling refreshed for when you come back to your writing.

How do you think music helps you as a writer?

Following on from yesterday’s post about how your job could boost your writing, today we turn our attention to a very similar, yet also different, issue: how your writing could improve your non-writing career.

A skill not everyone has

One of the obvious yet still useful ways in which your writing could help your non-writing career is that writing is a skill not everyone has. Of course, everyone can write to some degree, but being able to write to a very high quality on demand is definitely a valuable skill. Even if being able to put together great, grammatically-correct sentences on a regular basis isn’t an everyday part of your job, it’s still something that can stand you in good stead for the future.

The ability to multi-task

Writing outside of your main job is also a good way of demonstrating your ability to multi-task. It shows that you can work on multiple projects at once, and can deal with different disciplines when required. Always useful when you’re trying to impress the boss around promotion season…

A demonstration of your commitment

It also shows that you are committed – it hopefully proves commitment to your non-writing job as you’re still performing it to a high standard even though you’re writing as well, and it shows you’re committed to your writing because you’re willing to do it whenever you get a free five minutes. Hobbies and outside interests might not be the most important thing when you’re applying for jobs, but they can still help sway things in your favour, so being able to say you’ve been writing for X years as a hobby or second job is almost certainly a good thing.

The means to express yourself well

Finally, writing gives you the means to express yourself well, which as we all know is important in the world of work. Whether you’re trying to make the case for why you should get a promotion/raise, trying to get a new job or to tactfully raise some issues with your current job, your writing skills will be hugely useful.

Plenty of writers – probably most writers – have a job outside of their writing. When all you want to do with your life is write for a living, this can be frustrating, but you can still make your other job work for your writing. Here are some of the ways you can do it.

Use it for inspiration

Probably the most obvious (and possibly the best) way to use your job for your writing is to see it as a source of potentially excellent inspiration. That colleague of yours, for instance, who has the odd habit of spending a bit too much time on their own in the stationery cupboard, or sucking up to the boss for reasons unknown. They could make an excellent character in a novel.

Well, maybe not them, but certain, carefully-chosen aspects of them.

The office is also an excellent place for a whole range of shenanigans and other happenings that could inspire your writing. The secret-that’s-not-a-secret office romance. The gossiping that goes on whenever so-and-so is on their lunch break. The rumour about how the back window really got broken. It’s all a source of excellent plot strands and story starting points.

Utilise that discipline

Having a job outside of your writing can also give you a discipline that you might not have if all you did all day was write. It’s a common complaint of writers that getting down to work is something of a challenge, even with years of practice. However, if you’ve got another job and are serious about your writing, you won’t have time for procrastination. Your lack of free time could actually end up helping you.

Other jobs also require us to have discipline to enable us to meet deadlines and keep up a good standard of work – both very good habits to be in when we’re hoping to make something of our writing. Transferable skills are great no matter what you’re using them for, and writing is no exception.

Enhance your skills

The other good thing about having a job other than writing is that it gives you the chance to enhance your skills. You might be able to go on interesting training courses as part of your job, or get involved with things you wouldn’t otherwise have access to. It all helps to improve your skills, which can in turn help you improve your writing.

For instance, it will give you a bigger base of knowledge to draw on, and can help you make your writing more realistic.

Does your job help your writing?

When you’ve been writing for years and years without much success, it might be tempting to start thinking about putting away your pen and giving up on the whole enterprise. Tempting – but don’t do it. Writing is something we feel like we have to do, and we should never give up on our writing dreams. Here’s why.

There’s always a chance. Just because you haven’t had much success with your writing until now, it doesn’t mean you’ll never have success in the future. Plenty of now-very-successful authors wrote for years before getting anywhere, yet they still managed to get where they wanted to be. In true clichéd fashion, if you have a dream, don’t give up on it.
It’s good for your mind. Even if you’ve decided to give up on publishing your work or getting it to a wider readership, it’s still worth writing for yourself. It’s a good way of keeping your mind open and developing new ideas, which could also benefit other areas of your life.
It’s a valuable skill – and shows commitment. Being able to write well is an important skill, and it’s one that could benefit any other job you might have. Being dedicated to your writing – whether as a hobby or professional enterprise – also demonstrates your commitment, which can be useful for other jobs.
It gives you a goal to work towards. Everyone needs something to work towards, and your dream of being a successful writer is a very good one indeed.
You never know what you might create. Most of us start writing because we love it and we want to tell stories. We also write because we want to read a book that hasn’t been written yet – so we take it upon ourselves to give it a go. You may not have written the book you’ve always wanted to write and read yet, but that doesn’t mean you won’t.

No matter how long we have been doing it, writing can still seem like a challenge – but we can also end up stuck in a writing rut, even if we don’t feel like we’re in one. Writing similar things all the time can be great (a particular series of novels, say, or a speciality subject that we’re something of an authority on), but it also makes sense to change things up from time to time and write something different. Here are some of the best reasons why writing something different is definitely worth a try.

Keep it fresh. The last thing we want as writers is for our writing to get stale. Actually, the last thing we want is for the teabags to run out, but stale writing is also up there. Trying different things can keep it fresh as we’ll be less likely to get stuck on a particular groove.
Find new inspiration. Inspiration can be hard to come by sometimes, but writing something different can really free up your thought processes. Whether you write an entirely new idea or simply re-write a current project in a completely different style, it’s sure to be a useful exercise.
Find what you’re really good at. When we’ve been writing in a certain way for a while, we can start to think that that’s what our writing is, not realising that actually, there’s another kind of writing that we’re even better at. You’ll never know if you don’t try, so give a different style a go.
Find the right style for a project. We might be convinced that Idea A will work best as a short story, but what if some other form of writing might be better? Doing things differently might not always be the way to go, but sometimes it can really make things click.
Be more original. We all want to be original with our writing, and writers and readers alike are always looking out for something new. Trying something unusual with your writing might produce a few messes, but it could also produce something zippy, exciting, and genuinely original.

Do you like to try different styles of writing, and how do you think it benefits your work?

We all know that series of crime novels are popular with both writers and readers. They give writers the chance to create a compelling cast of characters to use multiple times, as well as to construct plots that can sometimes take several books to resolve. And they give readers the chance to get to know the world the author has created, to read something that is familiar yet new, and to look forward to the book that comes next.

But when you think of a crime series, what do you imagine? We might at first think that a crime series is a crime series, and that’s that. However, there are a few different types of crime novel series that we could consider as authors, and they’re all definitely worth contemplating.

Same characters, same world, different stories

Probably the most popular option when it comes to the type of series, one option is to create a cast of characters who inhabit a particular time and place, but face different challenges and stories each time. One of the big benefits of this sort of crime novel series is that it allows readers to (hopefully) form attachments to and find interest in the characters and world the writer has created, as well as giving the author the chance to explore a wide range of different stories while using at least some of the same characters.

Same world, different stories, different characters

Another option might be to use the same setting and place for each novel, but to utilise different characters in each book. Therefore, rather than having the same protagonist(s) in each book, you’d change with each one. For instance, in one novel, your focus might be on a detective duo hunting a killer. In the next book, the focus might be on a lawyer or medical professional. Characters you’ve used before can make bit part appearances for continuity purposes, or they could be entirely absent from subsequent novels; it all depends on how you want to go about it.

Different stories, different characters, different worlds

This might be the hardest option to sustain as a series for any length of time, but if you’re up for a challenge then you might like to try making each novel completely different in almost any way imaginable, but with a few details connecting the books so that they can still constitute something of a series. For example, you might have a single character that connects books set in different times and places, or a signature style of crime that runs through your books. After all, we should be free to push boundaries and explore different things in our crime novels – and if that means doing something a bit different to the norm, it shouldn’t put us off.