Writing for fun or profit

Yes, ok I’ve heard the old ‘people who only try writing to make a quick profit will never make it’ truisms many times before, and I’m sure most ‘wanna be’ or beginner writers would agree with this. You have to want to write first, and then want to become good enough at the craft through diligent practice and learning to become publishable. And although everyone’s definition of ‘publishable’ is different, it’s only really the editors/publishers definition that matters.

 

I may be wrong here, but I seem to have noticed a distinct lack of the ‘fun’ part amongst the new wave of ‘beginners’ lately. Now, to set the scene, I would consider myself a beginner writer, and have done so for at least the past ten years. I say I’m a beginner because during this time I’ve only just scuffed the surface of the magical mystical publishable barrier. Although I would consider the substance (telling a cohesive story) and the technicality (the craft aspect) of my writing to have improved during that time I will always still see this as  learning until the increasingly unlikely event of me getting a publishing deal. It’s the last level of fine punctuation and grammar editing that remained my biggest bug-bear, and I can’t afford to personally employ a professional editor. But hey, that’s just me being grumpy again.

Book Festivals, good bad or indifferent?

I’ve been browsing through the latest events list for the Edinburgh Book festival again this year, and as usual I’ll probably try to attend something. I’ve generally turned up for at least a passing look at what’s happening most years for longer than I care to remember. Although I’ve seen some interesting things during that time, my most abiding memory of events-past is being stuck at work and missing the Terry Pratchett talk, something I really would have liked to attend ever since picking up a brand new just-of-the-press hardback copy of ‘The Reaper Man’ way back in my college years.

But is that the thing. Are they just pandering to our misty-eyed remembrances? Or to the poke-it-with-a-stick interest we have in the lives of the famous or controversial figures that generally turn up to promote their autobiographies etc. Is there still real merit to Book Festivals in our modern digital age?

One thing I have noticed is that there seems to be a lot more emphasis on promoting new authors this time around, something that has admittedly been growing over the last few years. Surely that can only be a good thing. As normal the ‘recognisable names’ are there. Paddy Ashdown’s talk on “WHY THE WORLD WILL NEVER BE THE SAME AGAIN” seemed to sell out quickly (shouting capitals and all!) while the more ‘literary’ based events take a bit longer to sell. Yes, I know that’s just the way things are. But it does make me wonder who is attending these events nowadays, and why. Are they avid book readers, does it matter? Should these festivals be trying to pull in the off-the-street punters? I would say yes, they should, the more ‘diverse’ the merrier. But when you sit in the book festival beer-tent and look around you see a very different crowed to those attending the seemingly less hi-brow events.

I see people sitting in bars or on benches or on a bus with kindles now, but I don’t think the majority of these readers would ever consider browsing around the book festival. It’s a perception thing, but I also don’t think the look and attitude of many of the attendees help maters ether.

So what do you think? Is there a future for book festivals in general?

Are they still relevant to our modern reading habits?

Writing in tongues. (Part 2)

I recently read an interesting article about fantasy writing on the BBC magazine site. 

The article, titled ‘Why are fantasy world accents British?’ looks primarily at TV shows and film, and explores the peculiar phenomenon of why most fantasy characters speak with Brittish accents, but its arguments and logic can equally as well be applied to the written word.

The article gives examples of the ‘Game of Thrones’ TV series, taken from the books of the American author George RR Martin, and the blockbusting ‘Lord of the Rings’ and upcoming ‘Hobbit’ films in support of its argument.

I think it does make a compelling case for appropriate regional accents, and it goes someway towards explaining why America audiences in particular, and the world in general, seem to like British-English voices in their fantasy fiction.

I read this article not long after receiving the news that one of my own short-stories written in my native Scottish vernacular (that I posted about before) is likely to be published in an upcoming anthology of ‘Scottish Voice’ stories. On reading the article I was reminded of the overwhelmingly positive response a draft version my own story got from American readers when I posted it to a critique site...

The lean, meme, writing machine...

I've been reading a book titled 'Epic Win for Anonymous' by Cole Stryker recently.
It's a, sort of, history of the Anonymous Hacker group and their rise to... notoriety, lets say... through the 4chan image-board network.
The book is a decent read if you like this type of thing, but that's not what this post is about. You see the first few chapters of this book explore memes in general and internet memes in particular.

  

Anyone heard of LolCatz? 

That's probably one of the most widespread Internet memes 'alive' today, and it was birthed from the rather fetid hive-mind that is 4chan.

Please don't be too tempted to go have a look though, as there are certain things you just can't un-see...


Anyway all this talk of memes got me thinking about how much our current memes are imbedded in today's writings, especially fiction writing. I think a lot of modern memes are present both in the finished stories and in the way we are now taught, or told, to write.

Anyone can be a writer!

...Or at least that's what a lot of the 'How To' books would have you believe. 
I read in the blurb of one such book that 'anyone who can write a letter can write a Novel.' But after looking at the ever-increasing pile of rejection notifications and  'one star' reviews I think most wannabe writers could be forgiven for being little sceptical of this advice.

Writing is a craft, and crafts can be learned and mastered. So in one real sense anyone could become a writer, that isn't a lie. But I don't think it necessarily means that anyone who can compose a decent letter can write a Novel. It's like saying anyone who can drive a car could become a top formula 1 racing driver. Maybe in theory they could, but unless they have the drive, not to mention nerves of steel, they won't get far in practice...