I’ve just received my first critique back from Miranda. It was based on the first 5 chapters of the novel and the issues it has identified have caused my head to whirl. The following morning I was awake at 4.30 with ideas and plots and any other number of points racing through my mind. I’ll probably expand on them in greater detail in later posts but I thought I’d mention two here that particularly struck a chord.
i) My novel is set in a fictitious town in Yorkshire. As you read the story you come to appreciate that the town’s name: Stoneville, is a key point. However this is a 12th Century town in Northern England - not the middle of the United States of America. Add this to the fact that the main street through my town was called (wait for it…) Main Street and Miranda rightly pointed out the inconsistencies and the difficulty in developing a credible location for the piece. It struck me at that point that much of the fiction I read has a US location and how much I had absorbed into my culture without realising it. This isn’t an American-bashing mission, I was in Maine just a few months ago and I loved every minute… it’s my reflection on the need to understand your location and not be sloppy when making decisions such as place names etc.
ii) Miranda also suggested reading around the genre (horror). I read a lot of horror but I thought I would try and read as a writer (more of this in a later post!) so I have selected 10 horror novels and read the first 30 pages to look at how they were constructed. How the authors set the scene, introduced the characters, and created and developed the tension. So here’s my top 10:
Bentley Little: The Walking
T.M. Wright: A Manhattan Ghost Story
Stephen King: Lisey’s Story
Stephen King: IT
Joe Hill: Heart Shaped Box
Ramsey Campbell:Needing Ghosts
Neil Gaiman: American Gods
Clive Barker: Weaveworld
Michael Marshall: Bad Things
Michael Marshall: The Insiders
Tim Lebbon: Face
Mark Morris: The Deluge
John Ajvide Lindqvist: Let the right one in
The first thing you’ll probably notice is that I’m not very good at sticking to my plans! 10 is a bit harsh and even this list is shorter than the original.
In making the list I deliberately chose not to include any “classic” novels (Dracula, Castle of Count Otranto, Frankenstein etc) as I’m interested in how a contemporary author tackles these issues.
