Today, Jane highlights a crucial lesson she learned along the way about how to write compelling fiction:
Here’s something I’m not meant to tell you: my
first novel, The
Last Treasure Hunt, isn’t really my first novel. It's my debut –
but it's not the first book I wrote.
Though it’s rarely acknowledged, there’s
nothing unusual in this: a 2010 survey found that the average number of novels
an author writes before being published is between three and four. These
‘practice novels’ are sometimes published later on in an author’s career, but
more commonly they're relegated to a dusty box-file or a forgotten Word
document.
Such is the fate of my own practice novels.
With each of the two books I wrote prior to The
Last Treasure Hunt, the fundamental flaw was the story: it just wasn’t
strong enough. As a creative writing teacher, my experience suggests that most
emerging writers fall into one of two categories. There are those who can craft
beautiful sentences; and those who can tell compelling stories. A lucky few are
equally able with sentences and stories – but most will find they have to work
hard to develop their skills in their area of weakness.
I fell firmly into the first category, though
it took me some time to realise this. When agents and publishers declined my
submissions, they did so with compliments about the beautiful writing – but if
the writing was so beautiful, what was I missing?
Though I’d completed a Masters in Creative
Writing, in seminars and workshops we’d paid very little attention to the nuts
and bolts of storytelling. This, I think, is a question of scale: it’s much
easier to focus on studying and critiquing smaller texts – sentences and
paragraphs, short stories and novel extracts – than to work through a reading
list of scores of novels and deconstruct the elements of plot. Recently Hanif
Kureishi went so far as to complain that most of his students can’t tell a
story, and that storytelling
is an unteachable skill. He’s dealing in hyperbole, of course.
Storytelling may be a harder skill to teach than, say, writing convincing
dialogue – but it’s far from unteachable. Dare I say that only a poor teacher
would insist otherwise?
If you want to build up your storytelling
muscles, though, you may have to look beyond a traditional creative writing course.
Once I’d realised what was wrong with my practice novels, I turned to a screenwriting
class for help. Here, I learned about three-act
structure and plot points, reversals and value changes, active questions and
narrative tension. I learned techniques that transformed my approach to
planning and structuring a novel, and developed new methods of shaping scenes
and chapters.
In short, that class was a revelation. As with
any newly acquired knowledge, the more I put theory into practice, the more
fluent and effortless my practice became. Soon, crafting an absorbing story
became one of my favourite parts of the novel-writing process – and when I pass
what I’ve learned on to my students, I
can practically hear the cogs turning as they begin to think about their
works-in-progress in ways they never have before.
And the next novel I wrote – my third – turned out to be my ‘first’.
To find out more about Jane, her creative process and the novel, visit her website here. Come back to Literascribe on Friday to check out the latest clue in the online treasure hunt!
Reminder: my next Fictionfire Focus Workshop is on Short Stories, on 11th April - there are still places available. Find out more here. Fictionfire by the Sea, my writers' workshop and retreat in St Ives, takes place from 17th-19th April. It's fully booked, but you can still add your name to the waiting list by emailing me at info@fictionfire.co.uk. You can also join the Fictionfire mailing list on my website, to be kept informed about future workshops and retreats.
In June, I'll be running a day course on Character Building and giving a lecture on the essentials of Self-editing at the Winchester Writers' Festival - visit www.writersfestival.co.uk.
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