The CC authors, writers, and bookists thread.

[Drago]

Don't they wear kilts?

Onky for pleasure on evenings out, not when delivering punishment beatings.

 

[Illaveago]

You gotta write about what you know!

91 pages in. Now telling the backstory for the hero and setting him up to meet the love interest and then have his first confrontation with the bad guy.

Does his wife know ?

 

[Drago]

His wife is dead. Head the tragic, grieving hero.

 

[Drago]

Now on page 100. Heroes childhood, describing how he joined the marines.

 

[Reynard]

Just a bit of advice @Drago

Don't drop chunks of backstory in like indigestible lumps. Sprinkle it throughout the story - a hint here and a nudge there - it just makes things more pleasant for the reader. The exception would be a flashback, but those need to be used both judiciously and sparingly.

Infodumps are one of the most tedious things to read. If you need to impart important information to the reader, then have one character tell it to another. It always helps if you've got a character (or characters) who need to know bits of the backstory.

You, as an author, need to know the entire history and biography of each character you create*. The reader doesn't - except for those bits that are truly relevant to advancing the plot of the story. Any extraneous information is simply padding out your writing unnecessarily, and any editor worth their salt will likely ask you to cut it. This is part of why I enjoy writing fan fiction so much, because the reader is already familiar with both the characters and the setting. So, as a writer, I can simply get on with writing the story without having to deal with any of that.

*except for the background extras

 

[Drago]

Well past 100 pages now. The hero's back story is quite lengthy so I've broken it up, introducing it at pertinent moments in the plot. It's very pertinent to who he is now and the situation in which he finds himself, so it needs to be in there.

 

[Drago]

130 pages. Hero and villain just about to have fisticuffs.

 

[Drago]

Now at 200 pages.

It's quite violent. One death already.

 

[classic33]

Now at 200 pages.

It's quite violent. One death already.

That's a bit late for the first death. That should have happened halfway down page two, at the latest.

 

[Reynard]

That's a bit late for the first death. That should have happened halfway down page two, at the latest.

This.

Unless @Drago is writing his story in the style of a 1930s detective novel, where the body eventually turns up in the library of a big country house well past halfway through the book...

 

[Drago]

That's a bit late for the first death. That should have happened halfway down page two, at the latest.

But early on is the backstory of the situation and of the very weapon that caused the death. Couldn't very well have it 190 pages after someone had been shot in the back with a Beretta shotgun.

See, it was a weapon that the protagonist was paid to dispose of by the Acton firm, but he kept if for himself for protection following three lads from the Black Watch kicking him almost to death for raping one of their sisters. Pay attention at the back!

 

[Drago]

Initial draft finished.

311 pages, 81,000 words, a masterpiece of plotting, crime, nastiness and violence. It includes a sex scene that I agonised over getting right, and a sexual assault scene (fear not, the offender quickly gets what's coming in spedtacular fashion.)

So now begins the task of re-reading and doing the necessary spelling, grammar and continuity corrections, and chopping and changing until I'm happy with it, and then trying to find an editor.

The first draft is very rough but any of you rascals wanted a read be happy to send it across.

 

[DCLane]

@Drago - I proof marketing textbooks for a couple of publishers. Not sure that's of use to you?

 

[Drago]

Any knowledge or insight greatly welcomed from any direction.

If you fancy casting your eye over it - and it's a thumping good good read without worrying about any errors - then you're very welcome to do so.

 

[delb0y]

Happy to have a read, if you want another opinion. I've had ten or so short novels published and spent many years partaking in a very good critique community. Depends what you want from your readers, just a thumbs up, or constructive criticism. Alternatively, may be worth doing a few more drafts yourself and getting it as good as you can before passing it on to readers. PM me, if you like. Derek.