Words with Stewart Ross

Writing for Young Adults : The Soterion Mission (3)

2011-06-05T23:10:00.000-07:00

A few days ago, as I was rambling around the subject of writing the Soterion Mission and trying to get straight in my head exactly what I was doing, I said I'd tackle sex and violence in a novel for young adults. Then I avoided doing so because other things seemed to have priority. But now, alas! I can't stand aside any longer.

Violence first.

Like every writer I know - and nearly all readers - I'm opposed in principle to censorship. That said, I'm not sure what my reaction would be to a vitriolic piece that openly advocated the torture and murder of, say, all people with red hair or brown skin. In a perfect world, where everyone was balanced, sensitive and well-educated, I suppose I'd allow the piece be published because all readers would inevitably scorn such idiotic nonsense. But ours is not such a world ...

Which means that there must be some limits on what we can and cannot say. Just in case. But don't ask me to be the judge.

Regarding violence in novels that are designed to appeal to young adults, I think the position is simpler. In my experience, readers self-censor: they read only what they want to read. If the want unremitting blood and guts, then there are plenty of places where they can find it, in books, on the web, in movies and so forth. Moreover, they know full well that horrible human beings - and sometimes not such horrible ones - have been doing foul and cruel things to other members of their species since homo sapiens sapiens emerged umpteen thousand years ago. Read history. Watch the news.

So the amount of violence in the Soterion Mission is determined not by some absolute moral code but by what, in my judgement, the readers want and what sits easily with the tone of the novel. Interestingly, from the feedback I've received, the older the reader, the less overt violence they appear to want - the loudest whingers are adults who seem to want to keep dear, sweet innocent children in some sort of wholly unrealistic and ultimately damaging candyfloss cocoon.

The Zeds are what happens to people in a society without laws, culture and education. We all have something of the Zed in us; they are a warning, if you like. Of course they do despicable things. Nevertheless, I hope the reader notices that they are so foul as to be ridiculous in their nastiness, just as angels are ridiculous in their goodness. Timur is, therefore, to some extent a comic character - the only possible reactions to his insane cruelty are total despair or laughter. I've opted for the latter.

Moreover, again as a close reader will notice, violence in the book is never actually described in detail. Its effects are there, as is what's going on around it. But the deeds themselves are in the reader's imagination, which is - as with sex scenes - where they are best left. The scream from behind a closed door is more terrifying than the torture scene within.

Where does this leave us? There cannot be too much or too little violence in a book. Too much is simply a medical or butcher's handbook, too little a Disneyfied twee-mess. What comes between is up to the author. If he gets it wrong, the book will fail on several counts, including artistically and commercially (both linked, we hope). Those, in the end, are the relevant yardsticks: art and commerce, not some external morality.

WRITING FOR YOUNG ADULTS : THE SOTERION MISSION

2011-06-02T10:24:00.000-07:00

Having just finished Chapter 5 of this online novel (my first), perhaps it's a good moment to take stock. Like all of the writers involved in the extraordinary FictionExpress enterprise, I've found it a bit daunting writing a chapter a week, to order, with a meaningful reader choice at the end of each chapter. But it has been an ordeal well worth persevering with.

There are, I imagine, a number of writers who'd scorn the whole concept as undermining their artistic integrity. Fancy letting the reader intrude on the story! I do not agree. All writers - professional ones, at least - write for their public. To do otherwise would be both vain and stupid. Therefore, why not get the reader more closely involved in the creative process?

The snag, of course, is that the need for a three-way plot-altering decision every 4,500 words or so can make the writer feel cramped, cribbed etc. Maybe. But I believe art is best when obliged to work within defined boundaries - the sonnet, the symphony, etc. Shakespeare didn't do too badly within the straightjacket of 5 acts, 3 hours and pillars. Limits force the artist to think more carefully about what they are doing. The tighter the space, the more creative they have to be.

More thoughts in due course. Do let me know what you think.

The following day ... Thursday 2 June 2011

Today I thought I'd look at the inevitable question for those writing a novel for young adults: How far do you go? ie Sex and Violence. Then, after a quick moment of reflection, I realised that content is not really where I ought to start when attemption to analyse what I'm doing in the Soterion Mission.

I am fairly sure that the principal difference between a novel for adults and one for younger readers is not so much the story line or content as the age of the central characters. Young people like to read tales they can relate to. As a starting point, this means stories about other young people. They can then identify (or not) with the protagonists and more easily immerse themselves in what is going on.

For instance, only the oddest teenagers, as far as I know, identify with the personal angst of middle aged men and woman involved in affairs (a common theme of novels written for adults). On the other hand, they may well be fascinated by the impact of that affair on the younger members of the family because it reflects their world, their concerns, their experiences.

The second principle of writing for a younger audience is to make sure the story is presented in language they can understand. Some adults like to be challenged by quirky vocabulary (Captain Corelli's Mandolin) but in my experience children rarely do.

In fact, as a general rule, if a reader doesn't understand a piece of writing it is not their fault but that of the writer. Writing is about communicating. If the reader doesn't get it, the writer has failed in their central task. Take heart all you who find a book too 'difficult' - it's not your fault!

So there we have the first two rules for those writing for younger readers: (1) Central characters of an appropriate age and (2) accessible language.

And I haven't even got on to sex and violence! I must do some work now (RBS is a hard task master) so I'll leave content until tomorrow.

That ship

2011-05-01T23:30:00.000-07:00

Can you believe it? I've been asked to do some preliminary work on yet another Titanic book.
Is it something about big things that go wrong (Titantic, dinosaurs, World War II) that gives them enduring appeal, or is it simply the same basic economics (ie most of the marketing already done for you, hence Jaws I - XXXX)?
That said, the T is a fascinating subject for someone who's never previously got beyond Kenneth More being frightfully British and Kate Winslet and Leonardo Potato doing steamy things in the back of an old car before freezing to death. I'm looking at lifeboats at the moment: extraordinary that the number of lifeboats demanded of a vessel was based on its tonnage (max conceivable 10,000) rather than the number of passengers.

Watertight compartments and double hulls next.

1911 Census group

2011-04-28T07:32:00.000-07:00

Welcome to the Bredgar blog!

Please send any questions you want and I'll do my best to answer them and come up with useful tips.
Try to ask exact questions about words, sentences, beginnings, characters, endings, etc.
Please don't send everything you have written and ask for a comment on the whole lot! It'd take days for me to reply.
Fire away! Love to see how you're getting on ...

Here is the BRUNSWICK work for me to comment on:

Please check out our blog. We have 6 entries based on our WWI input. Alicia and George work to follow.

Patiently, I waited for George to return from the fields. I had dinner on the table and couldn't wait to get started! Suddenly, out of nowhere [you said he was in the fields!], George came storming in through the weak, wooden door [Do we need all these adjectives here? They slow the pace down. Good for SATs, bad for the reader!]], making a hinge fall to the ground with a clatter. [Like it] There was an awrkward [sp?]scilence [sp?] as George stared me down. Before I knew it, he had me pinned against the crumbly wall, shouting [comma here] "WHY WOULD YOU DO THIS TO ME ALICIA, WHY?"

[New para]I was lost for words... [Really? But she starts speaking!] '"WHAT ARE YOU ON ABOUT GEORGE ? Question mark, yes?] I DONT [Punctuation needed here, please]WHAT THE LIVING DAYLIGHTS YOUR (you are = you're]TALKING ABOUT!" [Personally I don't like all these capital letters - why not just use the word 'loudly or 'shouted'? They say the same thing]I replied, with gravel in my voice [excellent], [Full stop needed.] I turned away, not even bothering to turn back around.

Written by Sadie [And you are a star, Sadie. This is a great beginning that had me really hooked. Very exciting]

FROM ZARA
Beside me a man has blood spraying out of him. [Full stop and cap here probably better] Yuck! Revolting! [Excl mark added?] S [cap added]mells like urinated mud [ugh!], rotting bodies and things that make me want to vomit. Bombs exploding all around me, holding my ears because it's louder than a stereo [Did they have them in 1914?] full blast. Smoke clouds are rising and drifting up my nose. I can't help but [good] sneeze, vomit and cough. It's not very comfortable when you are crawling around in a trench, with rats surrounding me. A dead body right in front of me ... [Dots added. If you use fragmanted, broken sentences like this, you should use punctuation that matches it] I feel like I'm swimming in a puddle of blood mixed with urine, sick and wet sloppy mud. [Ok, ok, perhaps we've got the picture by now? Don't overdo it, Zara. It's something best to say less rather than more.]
It's disgusting! "Oh no!" The man beside me has been hit by another bomb [Poor bloke!], let me see, that is 6 now! [Ah! At this point it has become funny. Is that what you wanted?]
I haven't eaten or washed for weeks - [Punctuation changed - see above.] by the looks of it neither has anyone else. I feel proud to be in the war but also very terrified despite the fact I haven't got hit yet. [Full stop here.], it may happen ... [Punct change]
Spiders crawling up my arms! Many creepy crawlies and bugs are on my manky, dirty clothes.

Wow! This is rich stuff Zara. Very encouraging. I like the way you use broken sentences to convey the man's thoughts - but you need to check that you use the right sort of punctuation to support it.
Finally, remember that it is possible to over-write: we all have imagination, so fire us up with a few choice sentences and leave our imagination to fill in the gaps.

Ben's bit:

My life on the line, [Try a full stop here - makes the first sentence stronger] I tried to handle my nerves as I saw men fall to the ground like lifeless dolls [All dolls are 'lifeless' - cut the word] when a child's running home and there [Check this sp!] hands become weak and they dropped [You've changed tenses - past or presernt?] them in the mud. [The doll image and the running child are excellent ideas.]
Suddenly, I heard, [Comma added] "Cease fire!"in the other trench,
then there was a deadly silence.
[New para] My mate Bob said, [comma always before speech] "My god! [Exclamation mark added - it is an exclamation after all!] our men aren't even firing!"
[New para] So us being the nosey men we are, [like it!] we went over there to have a butchers.[Is slang appropriate here? maybe ...]

As we were trudging through the trench, we encountered lots of
dead bodies laying in the puddles of urine.The gunners were in reach now. But as we reached ['reach x 2] them we saw that they weren't even alive! Because of our training we could turn into gunners at the flick of a switch [Eh?]. Climbing quickly up the ladder to the guns [Not a sentence]. As we reached the top I heard a cry of pain and I saw Bob lying in the blood of the dead as lice jumped onto him. A German shell hurtling towards [one word]
me! It felt like years before it reached me but it was actually just about 4-5 seconds until it got to me. Because of my years of training, I knew that if a shell was coming towards me , I would [Had to] immediately jump out of the way to a safe place.

For a moment it felt like I was floating but then I realised that
was actually alive! I spotted the ladder that I climbed up, in an instant it was completely smashed to pieces. Now marooned on the top of a gunners mound, [comma added] so [delete this word] I
had to do my duty.

By Ben
Ben, this is great writing. Full of action and excitement and emotion. The attention to detail is what bring it to life.
Well done!

The Soterion Mission

2011-04-28T07:28:00.000-07:00

The best thing to hit the web since Facebook ...

Interactive fiction on www.fictionexpress.co.uk

Well, that's what the publicity says. It began with a phone call and a visit from the publisher some weeks ago. We discussed this exciting new idea - fiction for young adults in which the reader has an opportunity to influence the direction of the plot - and came up with a few ideas about how it might work. And now ..

It's quite a challenge, in several ways. The obvious one is writing a chapter in about 2 days, leaving a day clear for revision etc. A second difficulty is writing a story that is, by definition, plot driven and yet has interesting characters and which explores meaningful situations. As well as that, the readers have to feel that their vote is meaningful and not just a token offered to them by a writer who has known from the beginning which way their novel will go. That said, nothing would be worse than a so-called novel that comprised simply a string of crash-bang-wallop adventures linked by nothing but a title.

The answer, I believe - and the idea came not from me but from the publisher at our initial meeting - is to imagine a river flowing down a valley. The valley is the setting a general shape given to the story by the author; the snaking river is the chapter-by-chapter action.

If anyone reading the Soterion Mission has any thoughts on this (or any other aspect of the project), I'd love to hear from you.

And there is also the question of offering a novel in electronic form only. Good idea?