Exposure

When you create a character,they are out of your control! Otherwise, they are not real.

Another thought occurs to me. The lead characters in ‘Exposure’, one a bisexual woman living in a family context and becoming attracted to a young lesbian, and the other a slightly loose – in the moral sense –  professinal woman are , at times, as unknown to me as they are to the reader. That was my experience, anyway, as I wrote. Anything wrong with that? I don’t think so. To be real, your characters need to be blind to the future, and have no clear idea of where they are going. I guided mine, but they did the ‘living’.

Avril

Interest in ‘Exposure’

HI. There seems to be a bit of interest in ‘Exposure’ in recent days.

Thought I would comment a bit on the characters. As I said, no one is a heroine in my books. Instead I try to create sympathetic characters who are pretty ordinary but who deal with the other than ordinary. In this case it is media exposure of two women, one lesbian and one heterosexual, so we are looking at lesbain relationships and family issues. The aspect that I hope to engage the reader with is  socuial commentary about the impact on individuals, rather than the political rights and wrongs of media exposure.  The book does not bang drums! Hopefully it engages empathy without futile sympathy. As we watch the current world of politics and public exposure unfolding, I hope the book allows the reader to pose the question ‘Is it a case of there but for the grace of God …?’

Speak soon!

Avril

Who my characters are

They are always flawed. There are no heros or heroines in my novels – maybe with the exception of Gemma (Casa Di Corse)  but even she comes with a history and conflict in her family relationships. They are always struggling with some inner conflict, have some dilemnas that they are struggling to resolve or come to terms with. Sometimes they make it in the course of the novel; sometimes they fail and that affects the outcome.

 

Avril

Who my characters are

They all start with an idea, a trait, maybe occasionally a likeness to someone I have met or observed. But they are fictional and the proof for that lies in the fact that they take on personas of their own within the novel. And yes, they are the vehicle for the story line, but they have a life within my novels; they think, feel and react. I suppose it is true at one level that they are all a product of me, the writer, simply becasue they come from my psyche, as it were, but they surprise me too! Sometimes, when I am writing intensively (more of which anon) there have been times when I have been  out walking the dog in the mornings. Iwould plan the detail of the events of the day’s writing. By lunchtime, the character will have reacted in ways or thought thoughts that I was not anticipating, and I have ended up surpirsed by the turn of the events. Just as well there is always a game plan for the plot! But the more I show the reader what the character is thinking, as opposed to doing, the more alive the character seems to be to the reader.

Happy to hear what you think, especially if you are a writer too.

Avril

Literary platform

These days, apparently, it is about literary platforms, which I understand to be your abilityas a writer  to reach out to readers and the buying public who may be interested in your work. Apparently, this is the route to engaging any agent or publisher in the future. So my platform is blogging and Facebook, and talking about my books on line. Hope you find something to engage you in the days ahead.

Avril

My characters

Someone a lot more famous than I am said that there is a way to create your characters: you don’t make them do what you want them to; you listen to them and watch them react.

More of this theme in the days ahead (it was Andre Gide, by the way).

Do you need an agent?

They say that to get an agent, you need to be well published already and there was a time when to publish, you needed and agent. So it seemed to me as I started out that it was a closed and vicious circle. So I went it alone and did manage to get my first novel, ‘Casa di Corse’ published. These days, my investment is in my website, Smashwords and Kindle sales on the net, and talking via Blogging and Facebook. It is not my field,this world of computer literacy, but I am learning fast and the  skills and ability of a good computer expert have paid dividends. So thank you, Grant.

I wonder too if the days of the agent are changing with e books and self publishing and marketting? It is a long while since I even contmeplated an approach to any agent. These days, my energies are invested in writing and in learning the complexities of promoting my novels on line. More of which, anon.

Mind you, if any agent wants to talk, I would be delighted to hear from you!

Avril

can you learn from other writers?

Hi. I suppose the answer to that has to be a conditional ‘yes’. Obviuously, you have to read other novels to be able to write a novel in the first place. And you can see how people write, what their themes and structures are and how they use techniques. So that means you are not just reading for enjoyment but you are reading, as it were, like a writer, almost with a ‘third eye’ on how a book is being written.

But there, the learning ends and the application begins. Tha’s when you are on your own, alone in a room somewhere, just you and the computer. The books on how to write are gone, as are other novels. This is when  writing is self generating. You can use the insights of other great writers, but what you write is yours and yours alone. Tha’s what makes it so exciting and frightening, all at once.

About Writing

HI. I thought I would spend a few minutes thinking with you about how to use this Blog.

Of course, writing is about wanting to see the end product, have it recognised and maybe make some money along the way. But it is a journey, too, and I might reflect on some of the key issues that I have explored during the last years as I turned my ambition into reality. So I will talk about writing, generating ideas, themes. issues and plots, characterisation and structure,  and about turning all that into a form that might, hopefully, engage the reader. I hope it will be of interest to you and that you and I will learn from my standing back from both writing and publishing, and gain some new insights. See you again, hopefully, on my Blog.

 

Avril

smashwords

Just about to go live on Smashwords. It has been a huge journey beyond writing, a journey I could never have embarked on without my computer expert, trusted counsellor and friend, Grant Thomson. A huge thank you to him for my website, and all the connections to Amazon and Kindle and to Smashwords, and from there to Blogging and Facebook