V is for Vonnegut

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Kurt Vonnegut Jnr was born in Indiana in 1922 into a family of Architects. He studied Chemistry at University but enlisted in the Army at the start of WWII. During the war he was a POW and was inprisoned in a building the Germans called Schlachthof Fünf (Slaughterhouse Five).

After the war he continued his studies at University, but switched to Anthropology and worked as a reporter at The City News Bureau of Chicago. His first short story appeared in print in 1950 and his first novel in 1952, but through the 60’s the structure of his work changed. He enjoyed experimenting with the structure of his novels and this is most apparent in Breakfast of Champions.

Vonneguts novels had science fiction themes but have been widely read by fans of other genres. In 1997 he announced his retirement from writing fiction but continued to write for the magazine In These Times, articles ranging from observations on a trip to the post office to contemporary US politics.

He taught and lectured in English at Harvard and died in 2007 after a fall down the stairs where he suffered massive head injuries.

In ‘Bagombo Snuff Box: Uncollected Short Fiction’ Vonnegut listed eight rules for writing a short story:

1. “Use the time of a total stranger in such a way that he or she will not feel the time was wasted.”

2. “Give the reader at least one character he or she can root for.”

3. “Every character should want something, even if it is only a glass of water.”

4. “Every sentence must do one of two things—reveal character or advance the action.”

5. “Start as close to the end as possible.”

6. “Be a Sadist. No matter how sweet and innocent your leading characters, make awful things happen to them—in order that the reader may see what they are made of.”

7. “Write to please just one person. If you open a window and make love to the world, so to speak, your story will get pneumonia.”

8. “Give your readers as much information as possible as soon as possible. To hell with suspense. Readers should have such complete understanding of what is going on, where and why, that they could finish the story themselves, should cockroaches eat the last few pages.”

Vonnegut’s – How To Write With Style

My favourite Vonnegut quotes:

“Who is more to be pitied, a writer bound and gagged by policemen, or one living in perfect freedom who has nothing more to say?”

“Any reviewer who expresses rage and loathing for a novel is preposterous. He or she is like a person who has put on full armour and has attachked a hot fudge sundae.”

“Literature should not disappear up its own asshole, so to speak.”

“Here is a lesson in creative writing. First rule, do not use semicolons. They are transvestite hermaphrodites representing absolutely nothing. All they do is show you’ve been to college.”

Kurt Vonnegut – the shape of the story – EXCELLENT – If you haven’t already seen this you really should 🙂

Vonnegut continues after the 8 Rules Of Writing by saying that these rules are broken by many well known, and much read authors. So how do they get away with it? Learn the rules then break them seems to be the general advice, but then you’re also told that as a new writer you should conform to the standard way things are done or an agent or publisher won’t touch you with a barge pole *slumps* lol. Do you stick to the rules or get pleasure in breaking them?

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U is for Updike

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John Hoyer Updike was born in 1932 in Pennsylvania and it was his mother’s own attempts to be a published writer that inspired him to do the same.

He graduated from Harvard with a degree in English but his early ambitions to become a cartoonist led him to study Art at Oxford University. When he returned to the US the family moved to New York and it was there that his writing career began, initially as a full time member of staff at The New Yorker. He wrote poetry and short stories that were published in the magazine, and later this work was published in book form as short story collections.

His connection with The New Yorker (a relationship that continued many years after he left their employment) gave him access to readers and enabled him to publish his first novel in 1960, Rabbit – Run, the first in a series of 6 books. Updike enjoyed working in series and produced 5 during his lifetime. He worked in a wide array of genres, including fiction (30 novels and 17 short story collections), poetry, essays, a play, and a memoir. He won many awards including two Pulitzer Prizes.

Often compared to Nabokov, his style of writing was described as “rich” and carefully crafted. The constant theme of his work was religion, sex, America and death. He wrote nostalgically about small town America.

He died in Massachusetts in 2009 of lung cancer at the age of 76.

Updike was a Literary Critic and in one of his Essays he lists his personal rules for criticism.

1. “Try to understand what the author wished to do, and do not blame him for not achieving what he did not attempt.”

2. “Give enough direct quotation — at least one extended passage — of the book’s prose so the review’s reader can form his own impression, can get his own taste.”

3. “Confirm your description of the book with quotation from the book, if only phrase-long, rather than proceeding by fuzzy précis.”

4. “Go easy on plot summary, and do not give away the ending.”

5. “If the book is judged deficient, cite a successful example along the same lines, from the author’s œuvre or elsewhere. Try to understand the failure. Sure it’s his and not yours?”

“To these concrete five might be added a vaguer sixth, having to do with maintaining a chemical purity in the reaction between product and appraiser. Do not accept for review a book you are predisposed to dislike, or committed by friendship to like. Do not imagine yourself a caretaker of any tradition, an enforcer of any party standards, a warrior in any ideological battle, a corrections officer of any kind. Never, never … try to put the author “in his place,” making of him a pawn in a contest with other reviewers. Review the book, not the reputation. Submit to whatever spell, weak or strong, is being cast. Better to praise and share than blame and ban. The communion between reviewer and his public is based upon the presumption of certain possible joys of reading, and all our discriminations should curve toward that end.”

My favourite Updike quotes:

“Creativity is merely a plus name for regular activity. Any activity becomes creative when the doer cares about doing it right, or better.”

“A narrative is like a room on whose walls a number of false doors have been painted; while within the narrative, we have many apparent choices of exit, but when the author leads us to one particular door, we know it is the right one because it opens.”

“Each morning my characters greet me with misty faces willing, though chilled, to muster for another days progress through the dazzling quicksand the marsh of blank paper.”

“It’s always a push to get up the stairs, to sit down and go to work. You’d rather do almost anything, read the paper again, write some letters, play with your old dust jackets, any number of things you’d rather do than tackle that empty page, because what you do on the page is you, your ticket to all the good luck you’ve enjoyed.”

“To the young writers, I would merely say, “Try to develop actual work habits, and even though you have a busy life, try to reserve an hour say–or more–a day to write.” Some very good things have been written on an hour a day. . . . So, take it seriously, you know, just set a quota. Try to think of communicating with some ideal reader somewhere. Try to think of getting into print. Don’t be content just to call yourself a writer and then bitch about the crass publishing world that won’t run your stuff. We’re still a capitalist country, and writing to some degree is a capitalist enterprise, when it’s not a total sin to try to make a living and court an audience. “Read what excites you,” would be advice, and even if you don’t imitate it you will learn from it. . . . I would like to think that in a country this large–and a language even larger–that there ought to be a living in it for somebody who cares, and wants to entertain and instruct a reader.”

John Updike interview (do watch this…he reads an extract from one of his stories…..WOW! I want to write like that!!!!)

I’ve found my research on John Updike really inspiring, probably more than any of the Authors I’ve researched so far. I’m not sure why. The only book of his I recognize is The Witches of Eastwick, and even then, it’s only the film version I know. I LOVE his advice to young writers, about developing a work habit. I’ve tried to do that, but just recently, been a bit lapse. But it’s the whole idea of writing series that interests me. It seems very common nowadays with Fantasy and Crime Fiction, but you don’t often see it in other genres, or am I wrong there?

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T is for Tolkien

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John Ronald Reuel Tolkien was born in 1892 in South Africa but at the age of 3, when his father died, the family returned to England, settling in Birmingham.

Initially home schooled by his mother he could read by the age of 4 and write fluently shortly after. He loved to read and enjoyed the fantasy and fairy books of Andrew Lang and George MacDonald.

In 1911 Tolkien went on a holiday to Switzerland where he hiked in a party of 12 through the mountains. This adventure was to inspire him as he penned Bilbo Baggins journey across the Misty Mountains.

He graduated from Oxford University in 1915 with a first class honours degree in English Language and Literature but it wasn’t until the end of WWI that he took his first job, working for the Oxford English Dictionary.

But it was whilst working as a professor back at Oxford (a position he took in 1925) that he wrote The Hobbit (a story he had written for his children – published in 1937) and started work on The Lord Of The Rings. During WWII he was offered work for the British Government as a code breaker, but never served as one.

The Lord of The Rings was published in 1954 and took him 10 years to write. He originally intended it to be a children’s story (like The Hobbit) and although a sequel, it soon developed a darker and more adult theme as he wrote.

In 1959 Tolkien retired. The income from his books by this stage so profitable that he regretted not retiring earlier. Tolkien never liked to sign his books and subsequently, the rare signed copies that exist set high prices.

British adventure stories, European Mythology and his Catholic beliefs heavily influenced Tolkien. He said himself that “The Lord of the Rings is of course a fundamentally religious and Catholic work; unconsciously so at first, but consciously in the revision. That is why I have not put in, or have cut out, practically all references to anything like ‘religion’, to cults or practices, in the imaginary world. For the religious element is absorbed into the story and the symbolism.”

After his wife’s death he returned to Oxford, where the University gave him rooms and died there in 1973 at the age of 81, a year after receiving an OBE from The Queen.

Tolkien’s 10 Tips for Writers

Six Writing Tips From Tolkien

My Favourite Tolkien quotes:

“If you’re going to have a complicated story you must work to a map; otherwise you’ll never make a map of it afterwards.”

“I am dreading the publication, for it will be impossible not to mind what is said. I have exposed my heart to be shot at.”

“Being a cult figure in one’s own lifetime I am afraid is not at all pleasant. However I do not find that it tends to puff one up: in my case at any rate it makes me feel extremely small and inadequate. But even the nose of a very modest idol cannot remain entirely untickled by the sweet smell of incense.”

“It is the job that is never started that takes longest to finish.”

1968 interview with Tolkien.

We often forget that Tolkien wrote anything other than The Hobbit (100 million copies sold) and Lord of the Rings (150 million copies sold), but he has a large body of work including poetry. all of his work has a similar theme and was influenced by his interests. I’m finding with my own writing there is a “theme” developing, stuff that I’m interested in comes up time and time again, but there are certain subjects that interest me that I haven’t used….yet. Do you find that all your work has a similar theme, inspired by something you’re interested in?

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S is for Steinbeck

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John Ernst Steinbeck Jnr was born in 1902 in rural California and spent his childhood summers working with migrant workers on ranches, which later supplied him with the material for his novels.

At the age of 23, after leaving University with no degree, he travelled to New York where he took odd jobs while trying to write. But returned home after being unable to find someone to publish his work.

His parents gave him free lodging and loans so that he could continue to write but it wasn’t until his first commercially successful novel (Tortilla Flats in 1935) that he was able to build his own home.

Subsequent successes, Of Mice and Men, Grapes of Wrath (which has now sold over 15 million copies) and East of Eden guaranteed his place amongst the American literary greats and his work is now a constant feature on school curriculums across the globe.

The Nobel Prize for Literature, which he received in 1962 described his work as “realistic and imaginative writing, combining as it does sympathetic humor and keen social perception.”

He died of heart failure in New York at the age of 66.

My favourite Steinbeck quotes:

“Ideas are like rabbits. You get a couple and learn how to handle them, and pretty soon you have a dozen.”

“If you are using dialogue – say it aloud as you write it. Only then will it have the sound of speech.”

“Unless a reviewer has the courage to give you unqualified praise I say ignore the bastard.”

“In utter loneliness a writer tries to explain the inexplicable.”

“The writer must believe that what he is doing is the most important thing in the world. And he must hold to this illusion even when he knows it is not true.”

“You see this book is finished and it is a bad book and I must get rid of it. It can’t be printed. It is bad because it isn’t honest. Oh! The incidents all happened but — I’m not telling as much of the truth about them as I know. I’ve written three books now that were dishonest because they were less than the best that I could do. One you never saw because I burned it the day I finished it.”

Steinbecks Nobel Prize Acceptance speech:

I don’t know about you, but the thought of burning a whole novel ive written, just because I wasn’t happy with it, makes me feel almost faint! Lol. But it got me thinking just how many great writers over the years (pre computers) would have just thrown their work in the bin! 😦 Ive kept absolutely everything ive written since I took up writing (but I did burn some journals a few years ago because they were full of unhappy times). Have you kept everything or are you happy to throw it away?

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R is for Rankin

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Ian Rankin was born in Fife, Scotland in 1960. He started writing whilst still a student at Uni, and after leaving held down various jobs (grape-picker, swineherd, taxman, alcohol researcher, hi-fi journalist, college secretary and punk musician) before becoming the UK’s most widely read crime author.

He didn’t set out to be a crime novelist, believing that his first 2 novels (the first of which was published in 1986) were actually mainstream fiction. But it is for the creation of Inspector Rebus that he has become famous, having written 18 novels featuring the Inspector.

To date he has written 25 novels (virtually one a year since the first publication) and begins each novel by looking through his idea folder (a folder where he places notes and cuttings) for something to inspire the next plot line. Edinburgh, where Rankin still lives, plays a very important part in his novels, becoming a character itself.

My favourite Rankin quotes:

“The novel will decide which way it wants to go.”

“The first draft is me getting to know the characters and their motives. So I start the book knowing almost as little as Rebus does. So it’s a process of investigation and finding out for me, as it is a process of investigation for them.”

“I think writers have to be proactive: they’ve got to use new technology and social media. Yes, it’s hard to get noticed by traditional publishers, but there’s a great deal of opportunity out there if you’ve got the right story.”

“Whenever I heard that someone had taken 10 years to write a novel, I’d think it must be a big, serious book. Now I think, No – it took you one year to write, and nine years to sit around eating Kit Kats.”

“It’s a lovely pair of furry handcuffs to be in, but the more successful you get, the less time you get to write. It seems that the actual writing is taking up less and less of my life, and I’m not happy about that.”

Rankin being interviewed.

I love the whole idea that Rankin becomes a detective himself when it comes to writing his novel. It’s almost inspired me to write crime myself…I said almost 😉 Do you feel comfortable working that way? Discovering things about your novel as you go?

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Q is for Quick

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Ok, well as you can imagine, Q was difficult. There doesn’t seem to be any well known “Q” novelists 😦 Soooo, I’ve gone for a prolific genre writer, who writes under several names.

Amanda Quick aka Jayne Ann Krentz was born in California as Jayne Castle in 1948 and has been actively writing romance since 1979. To date she has over 35million copies of her novels in print and writes under various pseudonyms. She wrote the first ever paranormal futuristic romantic suspense novel and to date has published 120 novels, 32 of those being placed on the New York Times Bestseller list.

She spent 6 years writing and submitting her romance novels to publishers, getting rejection after rejection and tried to stop writing several times during that period, but found that she couldn’t.

Finally getting her first acceptance in 1979 (as Jayne Castle) she wrote for various romance lines but had to change her name as the contract she had signed with the publisher meant they “owned” her name and she was unable to use it on any further published work for 10 years.

She is very outspoken on the merits of “romance” as a genre and was editor on a collection of essays Dangerous Men and Adventurous Women: Romance Writers on the Appeal of the Romance that won an award (and i have a copy *pokes tongue out*). She has a huge fan base in The States.

Jayne writes under 7 different names, but the main 3 are:
Jayne Castle (futuristic romance)
Jayne Ann Krentz (contemporary romance)
Amanda Quick (historical romance)

I did manage to find some great quotes:

“Popular fiction encapsulates and reinforces many of our most fundamental cultural values. Romance is among the most enduring because it addresses the values of family and human emotional bonds.”

“I can only focus on one book/name at a time. It would drive me crazy to try to write two or more books at the same time.”

“I am a very disciplined writer. Sadly, I learned long ago that if I sit around and wait for inspiration to strike, it never hits! I start work at my computer at seven in the morning and I write until about noon. After that, most of my creative energy is shot. In the afternoons I work on plot points, research and serious shopping at Nordstroms.”

“Writing, for me, is an addiction; a compulsion; an obsession. I couldn’t give it up no matter how hard I tried — and believe me, I did try on several occasions during the six long years it took me to get published. I think that if you can walk away from your writing, you are probably not fated to be a writer. If you keep going back to it regardless of all the rejections, you’re doomed to be one.

“This is one business in which perseverance pays.”

“A writer must believe in his or her own voice because there will be times in this business when no one else will.”

And an excellent interview with the lady herself:

I know a few people who read my blog publish different genres under different names (mainly erotica) but doesn’t it get confusing? Imagine having 7 pseudonyms? Lol 🙂 Have you ever thought about using a different name to write a different genre?

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P is for Pratchett

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Sir Terence David John Pratchett (he has an OBE) was born in 1948 in Buckinghamshire, England. An only child, he spent hours at the local library and had a fascination with Astronomy. This led to an interest in reading science fiction and attending conventions.

He published his first short story at the age of 13, in his school magazine, but it wasn’t until he was 20 that he got his first break. Whilst working as a journalist he met a publisher and his first novel was published in 1971.

The first Discworld novel was published in 1983, but it wasn’t until 4 years later that he gave up work to write full time. The Times named him as top selling and highest earning UK author in 1996. To date the Discworld series of books (39) have sold over 55 million copies worldwide.

Known for his distinctive writing style, which includes footnotes and lack of chapters, the characters, place names and titles of his work often include puns and cultural references. A hallmark of his dialogue is the use of capital letters and no speech marks.

In the past he has dabbled in sci-fi and horror genres, but now, focuses entirely on fantasy. He has built an observatory in his garden and even has an asteroid named after him. In 2007 he was diagnosed with Alzheimer’s. Because of his condition he currently writes by dictating to an assistant or by using voice recognition software.

My favourite Pratchett quotes:

“You can’t build a plot out of jokes. You need tragic relief. And you need to let people know that when a lot of frightened people are running around, with edged weaponry, there are deaths. Stupid deaths, usually. I’m not writing ‘The A Team’ – if there’s a fight going on, people will get hurt. Not letting this happen would be a betrayal.”

“Writing is the most fun you can have by yourself.”

“I have to write because if I don’t get something down then after a while I feel its going to bang the side of my head off.”

“I like writing. I get cranky when I cant. Yes, I write books back to back, and I work very hard on them.”

“My own books drive themselves. I know roughly where a book is going to end, but essentially the story develops under my fingers. Its just a matter of joining the dots.”

Pratchett explains Discworld:

Pratchett interview from last year:

Im not a real fan of fantasy I have to say, but that’s probably because, apart from The Hobbit, I haven’t read any 😦 But im pleased to see a fantasy genre author with an OBE! Do you read fantasy, and if so, what is it about the genre that you like?

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O is for Orwell

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George Orwell was born in 1903 as Eric Arthur Blair to English parents living in India but when he was 1 year old the family returned to England and settled there.

As a child he dreamed of writing a book in the style of HG Wells A Modern Utopia and whilst still at college produced the college magazine. Instead of attending University (the family couldn’t afford it) he returned to India as part of the Imperial Police and on a trip back home to England after suffering an illness he decided to quit the police and become a writer.

But it wasn’t until he visited his aunt in Paris and received her financial support that he began to write novels. On his return to England he began research into his a memoir entitled Down and Out in Paris and London, and changed his name for publication so that it wouldn’t embarrass his family.

The publication of Animal Farm in 1945 plunged Orwell into worldwide success and followed up by Nineteen Eighty Four in 1949 (which has sold over 25million copies to date) cemented his place amongst the great writers of the 20th century.

While he was alive, Orwell was best known for his essays and journalism. He died at the age of 46 having suffered from reoccurring symptoms of Tuberculosis (which troubled him for several years) leaving behind his own adjective “Orwellian”.

My Favourite George Orwell quotes:

“Rules on Writing – Never use a metaphor, simile or other figure of speech which you are used to seeing in print. Never use a long word where a short one will do. If it is possible to cut a word out, always cut it out. Never use the passive where you can use the active. Never use a foreign phrase, a scientific word or a jargon word if you can think of an everyday English equivalent. Break any of these rules sooner than say anything outright barbarous.”

“The best books…are those that tell you what you know already.”

“Good writing is like a windowpane.”

“For a creative writer possession of the ‘truth’ is less important than emotional sincerity.”

George Orwell’s Essay – Politics and the English Language

The first part of a documentary on Orwell.

Orwell went to great lengths to research his project Down and Out in Paris and London, to the point where he explored the slums of London, even staying the night in a common lodging house. You often hear of other authors who will go to great lengths to research their books. Personally, I haven’t, but what lengths have you gone to for research?

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N is for Nabokov

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Vladimir Vladimirovich Nabokov was born in 1899 in St Pertersburg Russia to a prominent wealthy family, his father being a lawyer, statesman and journalist.

As a child he was taught Russian, English and French and could read and write in English before he could in Russian. After the Bolshevik Revolution the family fled to Europe and after a brief stay in England, settled in Berlin.

He published 9 novels in Russian between 1926 and 1938 but it wasn’t until he arrived in America (fleeing the Germany army in 1941) and became a Lecturer that he was able to fund his writing career. The huge financial success of Lolita in 1955 (that has now sold over 50 million copies world wide) meant he was then able to devote his time to writing on a permanent basis.

Noted for his clever use of words and complex plots, he enjoyed using “Alliteration” in his work and suffered from synesthesia. He died in 1977 in Switzerland after suffering from severe bronchial congestion. At the time of his death he was working on a novel, which he requested to be burnt on his death. His son went against his father wishes and published it.

My favourite Nobokov quotes:

“I think like a genius, I write like a distinguished author, and I speak like a child.”

“Caress the detail, the divine detail.”

“The pages are still blank, but there is a miraculous feeling of the words being there, written in invisible ink and clamoring to become visible.”

“Style and structure are the essence of a book; great ideas are hogwash.”

“Some people, and I am one of them, hate happy ends, we feel cheated.”

This is a really interesting documentary about Nabokov….it’s an hour long, but includes interviews with him….worth a watch 🙂

I don’t think I’ve ever used Alliteration in my writing, but it’s an interesting concept that I might explore one day. How about you? Do you use Alliteration?

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M is for McEwan

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Ian Russell McEwan was born in 1948 in Hampshire, England and was one of the first graduates of a creative writing course run by the University of East Anglia under Malcolm Bradbury and Angus Wilson.

He published his first collection of short stories at the age of 27 and his first novel 3 years later. He is often referred to “Ian Macabre” due to the nature of his earlier stories.

During his career he has been nominated for the Man Booker Prize 6 times, winning it for ‘Amsterdam’ and was featured on The Times “50 Great British Writers Since 1945.” The New Yorker named him as “Englands National Author.”

He writes “contemporary fiction” and has written short stories, novels, children’s books and screenplays, but critics, and readers seem to be divided on whether he is a master of prose or if his novels are so perfectly crafted that they are infuriating and beyond the enjoyment of the average man on the street. He is best known for his novel “Atonement”.

My favourite McEwan quotes:

“How often one reads a contemporary full length novel and thinks quietly, mutinously, that it would have worked out better at half or a third the length.”

“I often don’t read reviews.”

“I think of novels in architectural terms. You have to enter at the gate, and this gate must be constructed in such a way that the reader has immediate confidence in the strength of the building.”

“Im quite good at not writing.”

“You can spin stories out of the ways people understand and misunderstand each other.”

“You could say that all novels are spy novels and all novelists are spy masters.”

5 Minutes With Ian McEwan

I find it interesting what he says about reading “contemporary” novels, as personally, I found (whilst reading McEwans Saturday) that 7 pages to describe the main character leaving his house and arriving in the theatre of the hospital (the main character is a surgeon), a little excessive. So I totally agree! 😉 But isn’t that what defines contemporary literature? What is your interpretation of a literary novel as opposed to popular fiction?

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