Guest Post: 'Writing essentials’ by Morgen Bailey

It's been a while since we had a guest poster hre on FWB, but recently Chaz caught up with Morgen Baily (another insanely helpful fellow writer/blogger/etc) and invited her to contribute something.

So here's some helpful advice regarding writing style and technique, courtesy of Morgen:

American science-fiction novelist Jerry Pournell is reported to have said “I think it takes about a million words to make a writer. I mean that you're going to throw away.” I started writing for fun six years ago and more seriously three years ago and with three NaNoWriMo novels, one-and-a-half novels in between, three NaNoWriMo anthologies (a cheat on doing a novel this year but I still made the 50,000 words), part of a script, some poetry and loads of short stories under my belt, I’m pretty sure I’ve reached that target. How much of them I’ve thrown away I couldn’t tell you but it’s only a fraction, and if like me, you’ve dabbled before really knuckling down, you’ll feel better for it. It’s all about practice. If someone sat you in front of a piano, would they expect you to play a concerto? Would you expect that of yourself?

In my experience too many novice writers worry about finding their ‘voice’ and understanding their ‘craft’ early on. It can be a long journey, perhaps not as long as a million words, but as long as you write regularly (daily is the ideal but when does life afford that luxury?) you’ll get there… and here are a few basics to put in your suitcase:

• Probably the most used phrase when teaching writing is ‘show don’t tell’. If you have a character who is angry for some reason, saying ‘Andy was angry’ is a classic example of ‘tell’. Simply put, you’re not showing us how. If you wrote ‘Andy slammed his fist onto the table’ you are.
• Dialogue tags – it’s recommended that you can only go up to six pieces of dialogue (between no more than two people) without attributing it to someone. And there's nothing wrong with ‘said’. Don’t be tempted to look at your thesaurus and say ‘Andy postulated’. You could also avoid tags by another character saying “Oh Andy, that’s…” or in the description; ‘Andy laughed. “That’s…”
• Character names are important as we often get a sense of their personality by what they’re called. A Mavis is likely to be older than a Britney and would, usually, act differently. Avoid having names starting with the same letter; if you have a Todd talking to a Ted, the reader can easily get confused. Bill and Ted would be fine and as we know, they had a wonderful time back in the late 1980s.
• I’m a big fan of repetition… of not doing it. Unless it’s ‘the’, ‘and’ etc, a word should only be repeated if the second instance is to emphasise or clarify the first. For example, ‘Andy sat in the car. He beeped the horn of the car.’ You don’t need ‘of the car’ because we already know he’s in the car. If you said ‘Andy sat in the car. He beeped the horn and the car shook’ that would be fine because you’re clarifying that it’s the car and not the horn (because it’s the last object you mentioned) that’s shaking.
• Stephen King’s writing guide / autobiography ‘On writing’ has been the most suggested book in the interviews I’ve conducted. Amongst other things he’s notoriously against adverbs (‘ly’) and fair enough – in ‘completely dead’ you wouldn’t need the completely because dead says it all, and a character doesn’t need to be ‘sighing wearily’ because the sighing tells us enough, but adverbs are necessary in the right context. Again it’s all about clarification and fine-tuning.
• Every word has to count; does it move the story along or tell us about your characters? If not, the chances are it can be chopped.
• If you’re having trouble with a passage move on or leave it and return later with ‘fresh eyes’.
• Read. It doesn’t matter whether it’s your genre or not (one of my Monday nighters writes amazing sci-fi but has never read a word of it) but reading will help you see how a story is structured and balanced between dialogue and description; short sentences speed the pace, long passages slow it down.
• Join a writing group, get your work critiqued. Read your work out loud. It’s amazing what you’ll pick up when you hear it outside your head.
• Subscribe to writing magazines, go to workshops, literary festivals. If you really want to write immerse yourself in all things literary.

There are many more examples I could give you but all you need to remember is that it’s not about clever words (because that ends up becoming ‘purple prose’) but just getting pen to paper, or fingers to keyboard and having fun. When your characters take over (and they will) you’ll have the time of your life!

Morgen Bailey
http://morgenbailey.wordpress.com

Highland Flings

Chaz has now updated the slightly neglected 'Sword of Lochglen' webpage. As work on issue 3 rolls on, there's a new Origins of... page describing the influences which helped to create the series; new sample pages from Issue 3 in the Sample Art section - and a finished full-colour rough of the proposed cover to Issue 3 in the Cover Art gallery.

Currently, February/March 2012 looks like the most likely time for the release of Issue 3, entitled 'Tyrants & Teuchters'. ('What's a 'Teuchter' when he's at home?' our non-Scots readers may cry. Here's an online definition.)


A romantic moment as illustrated by Frang for Issue 3.

'Sword of Lochglen' - back in production

After the past year in which Chaz convinced himself (and everyone around him) that he had finally packed in drawing comics for good to concentrate on 'graphic fiction', a recent discussion with long-term Fenriswulf collaborator Frang has suddenly rekindled his interest in the historical Scottish satire, 'Sword of Lochglen'.

This bawdy, surreal and occasionally dark graphic novel features artwork by both Frang and Chaz, and the first two issues have already been made available in print, and digital format at the Lochglen webpage.

It's been over 5 years since Chaz lifted a pen to draw 'Lochglen', although Frang has since produced excellent work for the historical fantasy sequences which tell the tale of the narrator's romantic novel.



Greta Garbo - or just a humble teashop waitress? Hero William MacFaddyen meets secret admirer Rose in brand new panels drawn for Issue 3 of 'Lochglen'.

Expected release date: Spring/Summer 2012.

Prey for Us: Exorcismus

Northern Spain, 1499 A.D.

Episode 2 of the supernatural medieval horror series debuted on Youtube last night. Picking up from the end of the pilot episode, Brother Domingo prepares to exorcise the Devil, who appears to have possessed the body of a strange peasant woman. Meanwhile Tacitus, our narrator, fears he may have inadvertently inspired Satan to come into the Benedictine monastery by his over-enthusiastic illumination of the temptations of Eve.



Will brave Domingo be able to expel the Prince of Darkness from the monks' wine cellar...? While Bernardo cowers in the cellar awaiting Domingo's return, the Abbot conducts mass, unaware of the supernatural drama unfolding beneath his feet. Here's the Youtube link for episode 2, 'Exorcismus'.

Gothic...? Me? With My Reputation?

Recently, FWB opened a new account over at Gothise.com. It appears to be a new-ish social network site for 'alternative' people, which these days may usually be interpreted to mean 'miserable teenagers who like dying their hair black', but which also has wider significance for the frequently dark and strange subject matter that we present here. Originally intrigued because we noted that this very blog was getting some referrals from the site, we thought we might as well give the members something to look at over there as well.

If anybody else is inclined to join up, then feel free to add us and expand the network.

We're not convinced yet how useful, friendly or successful this site will prove to be, but we have to do our best to get ourselves, and our works, out there. Don't we?

The 'Black Flag' Keeps Flying...

Somehow, Chaz's first (and, to date, only completed) graphic novel 'The Black Flag' continues to be FWB's best-selling book on Amazon UK - currently sitting at #2 and #3 respectively in the charts for Fantasy and Sci-Fi in the Graphic Novels Kindle chart.



Ironically, it's also the one book in the whole FWB catalogue Chaz has actively promoted the least, since it's a) over 10 years old and b) Chaz is still a bit scared how well graphite pencil art and small comic-book lettering will actually show up on a Kindle reader. It's also the most expensive in our Kindle portfolio (but it did take five and a half years to complete). But going on the basis that no news is good news, and that nobody has complained loudly at him yet, long may it continue ;-)

For UK readers, the Kindle book is available here.

For US readers, the Kindle book is available here.

Prey for Us - a New Animated Series

Here's something dark and creepy from the FWB stable in time for Halloween - involving monks, madness, magic and medieval machinations...this is the pilot episode for a new (occasional) series of short films. Things start off badly for the monks at Navarre with a case of suspected demonic possession, but following a failed exorcism, the Holy Officers of the Inquisition are summoned to tidy up the mess...and then the real horrors begin...



This started life as a comic strip over 10 years ago, when Chaz and Frang were working on the first issue of Yokelore, a fantasy/sci-fi/horror comic which never got past the first issue. Chaz kept hold of the idea of a gang of creepy monks, and eventually the project has begun to see the light of day.

Here's the Youtube link to the pilot episode, which sets the scene and introduces Tacitus, the scribe and narrator of the tales.

An illustrated e-book, based on the series, is now also in production.