Solidity of Specification

I'm digging into the How To books again, so beware. These titles are from the reading list for a Creative Writing course, and the first, David Lodge's  The Art of Fiction, was a pleasant read but didn't teach me anything startlingly new. But then, it has been around for quite a while now. The book I'm looking at now is called The Road to Somewhere*...and I flicked to a chapter on Characters.

Here are a few nuggets: Characters are not just defined by what they do or say. The setting in which we find them may say a great deal about them. Hovel or palace? Yacht or rubber dinghy? Be careful about how you dress your character, as such things speak volumes, as do the cars they drive, the records they collect, where they shop. There's a phrase for this kind of thing - Solidity of specification. Ever heard of it? I hadn't either, but I already believe in what it's telling me. John drove his car to the shop tells us little about the character John. Tristram drove his Porsche 911Carrera 4 to Thomas Pink's in Jermyn Street tells us quite a lot about Tristram.(Well, it helps if you know Pink's is a designer-shirtmaker who's been around since seventeenth century and they make hand stitched expensive shirts. Something like that, anyway. I'm sure you get the drift...)

What a viewpoint character notices about another character can tell volumes, too. What they notice gives a reflection of their feelings as well the character. Sam may never notice Hilary's innate snobbishness, because she's snobbish herself. Harry will notice and hate it because he doesn't believe in boasting or putting down people who've made a genuine effort. Characters can undergo change, and their perceptions of  other characters may change.

There is a hint in this book that internal monologue is a turn off for the reader. When it is badly done it is boring, claustrophobic and unattractive. Nobody acts and nobody speaks. No reader wants to experience every little nuanced emotion and thought of the hero or heroine. They'd much prefer they got on with whatever is happening on the page. The other great turn off is simply describing a character unless it is done dramatically, in a way that will stop the reader in his/her tracks.

*Eds: Graham, Leach and Newall, 2005

Creative Writing courses

A friend of mine has recently signed up for a creative writing course, and shared her book list, which I plan to work through if I can get hold of the books. Half of me thinks these courses are A Good Thing, and the other half sniffs and asks How Can Good Writing Be Taught? (It might be because the course are darned expensive, which gives me an excuse not to partake.)
However, I see on Twitter this morning that a debut author has been snapped up with lots of zero numbers trailing the important one. The author is a lecturer on  - you've guessed it - a Creative Writing course.

"The Fire Sermon is set in a world without technology. 400 years in the future after a nuclear apocalypse. All humans now have a twin, with one, the Alpha, being physically perfect and the other, the Omega, having a mutation. A state of division exists between the two, with rebellious Omegas forced to live on blighted land, but although they live apart, when one dies, the other dies, too. The book follows Cass, an Omega with an invisible defect, the ability to see the future, and sees what happens when her power is discovered and her twin Zach casts her out.
Coode said: "I was completely hooked by the concept and her narrative skill was evident from the first few pages. The Fire Sermon is a wonderful adventure layered with high drama and provocative world building, with strong, appealing heroine at its heart."

Author Haig is a senior lecturer at the University of Chester, where she is programme leader in creative writing. Voyager plans to publish the book in hardback in spring 2015. (Joshua Farrington in the Bookseller today.)"

So there we are. That tells me what I should be doing, doesn't it? I should be skipping off to offer my money to the nearest creative writing course. It is interesting to note what appealed -
high concept, narrative skill in the first few pages, drama and a strong, appealing heroine. All those things agents keep banging on about. I've wondered lately if I'm bucking the trend by writing of a male protagonist in the first few pages of my story. If I  swapped Meg for Matho, would it make a difference? A few weeks ago I felt it did and I've brought her story forward to share the first chapter with Matho. I think I'm pleased with the result.