TURNING TO BOOKS FOR HELP

By Annie Harrison

During a recent conversation with a publisher friend, he commented

somewhat wearily, that his job was the literary equivalent of Simon Cowell’s
on The X Factor. Over the course of a year he receives manuscripts from
thousands of author wannabes, vast amounts of rubbish, a smattering of raw
talent and just a few born naturals – each dreaming of scooping a big
publishing deal. The behind-the-scenes reality is that publishers are already
well-placed to take their pick from the crème de la crème of established
names or authors. They are also spoon-fed by agents with the very best
debut authors, rigorously filtered from the scores of dream chasers who fill
their postbags on a daily basis.

Just about everyone ‘has a book inside’, but only a few go on to actually turn it
into reality. Some doggedly hammer away at agents and publishers,
hardening themselves to rejection. Others take on board the lessons learned
and revise their earlier inspirations, whilst some give up or go on to chase
other writing dreams. Whilst some brilliant first-time authors succeed in
seeing their book on the bookshelves at Waterstones, other talented writers
struggle to make it past the first base of an agent. Vying for the attention of
an agent is a process which can be random, unfair and dispiriting. Reworking
and perfecting one's copy and heeding the advice and experience of those
have succeeded in being published, is often the only way to smash through
the barriers to publication.

Having said that, nearly 121,000 different books were published in the UK in
2008, either by publishing houses or through self-publishing, and yet the top
20 hardback and paperback charts were dominated for months on end by a
handful of books. It would seem that the big publishing houses muster vast
promotional budgets in order to feed the British public a near exclusive diet of
biographies of TV personalities. The public's book buying power focuses on
these blockbusters, leaving little change for many of the other titles published,
with some authors just selling a handful of the books they have grafted so
hard for.

Not all virgin authors can envisage or emulate the success of writing
debutants like Audrey Niffenegger (The Time Traveler’s Wife), Mark Haddon
(The Curious Incident of the Dog in the Night-Time) or Donna Tartt (The
Secret History). But my publisher friend informs me that there is a huge
amount of talent out there, waiting to be discovered.

‘Writers are artists, who need to hone their skills before they can seek
out the big time. Painters, photographers, musicians, circus performers and
athletes all need to practice and perfect in their quest to succeed. Every
published writer had to get a ‘yes’ for his or her first book, and some authors
like John Grisham and Dan Brown were on to their third or fourth book after a
sluggish start, before they produced runaway bestsellers. So in effect, they
were still polishing their writing craft years after their first book was published.

‘It’s pretty much impossible for someone who has never written, to
produce a book that people will read. As any successful author will tell you,
the craft of creative writing and storytelling is an on-going process. The
learning never stops. Writing is a solitary process, and unless you are
fortunate enough to have a tutor, the skills need to be acquired and developed
solo too.’

There are hundreds of books on the subject of writing, and the following are
just my recommendations. Between them, they encapsulate the art of
bringing together plot, characters, presentation, English and style.

1. The Seven Basic Plots: Why we tell stories by Christopher Booker

This remarkable and monumental book examines the basis of story telling
in literature, film, and libretto. It provides a comprehensive answer to the
age-old riddle of whether there are only a small number of 'basic stories' in
the world. Using a wealth of examples, from ancient myths and folk tales
via the plays and novels of great literature to the popular movies and TV
soap operas of today, it shows that there are seven archetypal themes
which recur throughout every kind of storytelling - ‘overcoming the
monster’, ‘rags to riches’, ‘the quest’, ‘voyage and return’, ‘comedy’,
‘tragedy’ or ‘rebirth’. It draws on a vast array of examples, from Proust to
detective stories, from the Marquis de Sade to E.T. Beowulf is exactly the
same storyline as Jaws. This is a vital tool for the virgin storyteller.

2. On Writing by Stephen King

Bedridden following a near-fatal car accident, master of horror, Stephen

King, set about writing a memoir of the craft of writing. A combination of
autobiography and personal voyage, On Writing provides an invaluable
insight into his working methods, how he harnesses imagination and
characters and edits his work. Every writer should have a copy nearby
when they are writing.

3. 45 Master Characters: Mythic Models for Creating Original Characters

by Victoria Lynn Schmidt

45 Master Characters explores the most common male and female

archetypes. Through a number of exercises, writers can learn to develop
their characters in what they care about, what they fear, their motivations
and interaction with other characters. Is she Hera, the matriarch and the
scorned woman, or is he Ares, the protector and the gladiator? This is an
imaginative and stimulating aid to character formation for any story.

4. How Not to Write a Novel: 200 mistakes to avoid at all costs if you
ever want to get published by Sandra Newman & Howard Mittelmark

This won't help you generate characters, overcome writer's block or find
the inspiration to unleash the artist within, but it does contain some
excellent pointers towards the kind of faults that send manuscript straight
to the slush pile. It’s witty, sarcastic, patronising and, at times, offensive.
How Not to Write a Novel features fabricated excerpts from novels to
illustrate basic writing/style flaws. It’s a strange way to teach, but it gets
the messages across perfectly.

5. The Elements of Style by William Strunk Jr and EB White

Now in its fourth edition, this is the best-known and most influential
prescriptive treatment of English grammar and usage. First published in
the 1918, this tiny gem is jammed with timeless writing advice. The
Elements of Style shows you how to be clear, concise and precise. It is
written succinctly, elegantly and without fuss providing the essentials of
writing clear, correct English. Along with a good dictionary, Roget’s
Thesaurus, The Elements of Style is one of the core basics within a
writer’s toolkit.

Annie Harrison is author of Finding Mr Right: The Real Woman’s Guide to Landing That
Man published by JR Books (actually a work of non-fiction). She is currently working on a
piece of historical fiction on the Hapsburg Empire – a book she has wanted to write since
she was ten years old. www.findingmrrightthebook.com