Reading As a Writer - Part 1 of n
"Almost all good writing begins with terrible first efforts. You need to start somewhere." Anne Lamott
The problem with chronic illness is that even when you’re enjoying what you’re doing, and when you have ideas bubbling up all the time - ideas for the novel-in-progress, ideas for a new novel, even a new series of novels, an idea for a non-fiction book, you just don’t have the energy to do anything much about it.
I am just about keeping up with the course, which is glorious and inspiring - but only because in honour of summer we have four weeks this time, to do two weeks worth of assignments and novel-writing. I had hoped to catch up, or even get ahead - but I will be content if I make it through.
At the moment, we are concentrating on structuring scenes. One exercise has us analyse the structure of a long scene in Donna Tart’s The Secret History, and then points out how the structure of the whole scene echoes the structure of the whole novel.
It’s interesting to consciously map out possible scenes for the novel in progress and it might make the novel stronger, but I think in general as writers, we do this kind of thing more intuitively.
I am hoping that concentrating on doing it deliberately will feed into the whole intuitive thing later - although I can see it might be very useful for key scenes - opening, ending and various turning points.
So I promised I would write a bit about the psychological thrillers I’ve been reading recently, and I’ll start with one which I confess disappointed me. Not because it’s a terrible novel or anything - anyway, more later.
There will be spoilers so if you want to read it, look away after the picture!
It’s Cara Hunter’s latest novel, Murder in the Family.
It’s currently available on Amazon at 99 pence for the kindle - but probably not for much longer.
It’s her first stand alone novel, and I was really looking forward to it because her previous crime novels were a series - The DI Adam Fawley books - which I really loved. So why am I disappointed.
It’s not just that it’s described as “the gripping tiktok sensation” - though that does rather make my heart sink. That’s because I am old, isn’t it?
Really, it’s about the way the story is told, which I think prevents readers - or at least readers like me - getting caught up in the story.
It’s written as scripts from a true crime netflix drama, interspersed with meetings, and episode reviews.
And I have a feeling that if those trappings were removed the story itself would be more than a little predictable - even the twist. Well, I turned out how I expected it to anyway, although maybe I’ve just read far too much crime fiction.
It’s not JUST this “true crime” element though. In some ways Janice Hallett has experimented with these kinds of innovative storytelling forms, and I know I grumbled a bit about that, but actually they were written so well that there was no issue in getting drawn into the story.
And there is a series of crime novels which are built around the format of the true crime podcast and those were just brilliant. Ah - I just looked them up and they are crime/horror, by Matt Wesolowski. They really are very dark - and there are six of them - called The Six Stories Series. I may actually read them again!
Maybe it’s just because I was so much looking forward to the latest Cara Hunter, that I am more disappointed than I otherwise would be.
So what have I learned from reading this novel?
For me, I think it’s about the central importance of character driven story. Anything which pushes the reader away from that is a problem, and that includes using an innovative form. The Matt Wesolowski Six Stories series also used interesting ways of telling the story, but that didn’t stop me getting caught up in the story, and caring about the characters. The Janice Hallett novels were, I think, a little bit more focused on the puzzle kind of story, rather than being character and psychologically led - but they were so well done they were a pleasure to read.
If you do give it a try, tell me what you think. Am I being unfair?
More reflections on my recent reading to follow!
Ann