Fibbin’ Archie

You’ll only have to look at the cover and read the title out loud to get some idea of what this story is about. It is a bit of a pun, however. Archie is a lad who tells a few fibs and there are a few uncomfortable circumstances as a result.  He is also obsessed with numbers – including, of course, the Fibonacci series.

Mort than this, however, the whole book is a bit of an experiment. It’s a sort of “writing by numbers”. I’m convinced that the Golden Segment exists just as much in literature as it does in art. This was an attempt to uncover it. I’m not sure I’ve quite found it yet. It’s possibly there right under our noses in the Three Act Structure and it’s possible that those experts on story theory, Christopher Booker, Joseph Campbell, Robert McKee, VladimirPropp and Christopher Vogler have identified it in all but name. Certainly, though, this made me write in an entirely different way – a way that was no more nor no less rewarding than any other.  Just different. An introduction and a postscript give more details.

It’s a story set in West Bromwich, the town where I grew up. I’ve become incredibly fond of Archie – maybe because he’s a teenager very similar to the one I used to be, perhaps because he comes from my home town or it might just be because he is one of my newest characters and we always like our latest creations the best as we strive to improve all the time.

I’m keen to get people’s reactions. If you’d like a free review copy, then contact me on g dot james 1 at salford dot ac dot uk.     

Heath warning: it’s a bit rude in places and there is some strong language. 

How we form our stories

Premise, plot, synopsis – why not just write?

This has been on my mind a lot recently: I’ve been lecturing on writing fiction and on another module I teach at the University of Salford I’ve recently marked synopses of novels the students are working on. Naturally, in a twelve week module, when they’re studying two other modules as well, they’re probably not going to complete a whole novel. So writing a synopsis at this stage may seem a little false. In this submission, though, I’m looking for two things: evidence of a story that will work and a business-like, industry standard document that crystallizes that story neatly. Interestingly I ask for a 2500 word extract of the novel and the reworked synopsis in a subsequent assignment. This replicates what we might submit to publishers.   

The spirit of the synopsis

In my own practice I don’t write the synopsis until I’m ready to  submit but I’ve often got a bullet-pointed outline in my head. My eventual synopsis is a crystallization not just of a plot outline but of a whole process. Perhaps a default good synopsis will include:

A concrete premise (e.g. Jack stumbles across a pirate ship and manages to stop the pirates hurting his friends.)

Some character description

An outline of a story arc

A more abstract summary of the premise e.g. Jack finds his courage and saves his friends.

In order to have that in mind as I’ve write, I’ve come up with an initial idea, possibly putting it into words and taping them to the top of my computer screen to stop myself going off at a tangent. I’ve got to know my characters – so even if I haven’t answered a six-page questionnaire about them.  They have lived with me for a while and have come out rounded and believable, with a back-story and a future. In producing a text I’m using a balance of various writerly techniques using both art and craft.

Character or plot and is there a difference?  

Always story comes from a tension amongst the characters that people it and between them and their environment. But there are writers who claim to plot in detail, perhaps spreading story-boarding cards all over the floor and those who say they just put the characters together and step back and watch what happens. If these are actually two extremes I’d put myself almost exactly in the middle. I think, though, in fact we all understand the same about story. This is just a matter of different writers preferring different tools.    

I come back again, as I often do, to Stephen King who claims to write entirely from character yet produces stories with superbly crafted plots.                      

Gifts for Writers

Just before Christmas I was contemplating buying a gift for a writing friend. I saw something that looked absolutely fabulous in Waterstones. It was called “The Writer’s Toolkit” or something similar. It looked delightful. It came in a very attractive tin. It contained lots of prompts, tips and treats for the writer.

But I really shouldn’t spend that amount of money on my friend. She has given up the day job, lives on a shoe string and can only buy people token presents. It would embarrass her.

It struck me, though, that I could make her a Toolkit myself. The time it would take and the care in the choices I made would be the real gift. The Toolkit would come mainly from bits and pieces I had lying around.

I didn’t do it this year but I’m actually considering doing it for next year and also for one or two other writing friends.

Here are some of the ingredients for a Writer’s Toolkit:

• An attractive tin or box to put everything in
• A few old postcards – the pictures on the front and the messages on the back may lead to stories (I actually use old postcards a lot with my students. Go to a postcard fair and you can often pick job lots of old postcards for a small amount to money.)
• Half a dozen or so favourite creative writing exercises (I’d probably gear these to the particular writer – perhaps trying to push them a little out of their comfort zone.)
• Some free post cards – I’d write prompts on the back
• Some brightly coloured post-it notes (off my own pad if I’m really doing this on a tight budget)
• Some nice pens
• Some other bits of stationery
• An attractive note-book (Okay. You’d have to buy this but you can often find bargains. Keep your eyes open when you’re out and about.)  
• A book I’ve enjoyed – with a note about why I’d enjoyed it and how it might help the writer
• A chocolate bar (squeezed out of the weekly shop)
• A few paint colour charts to provide exotic names for a piece of flash fiction or poems
• A few photographs that might prompt a story
• A list of trustworthy small press publishers who’re currently open to submission
• A collection of newspaper cuttings of incidents that would make the good basis of a story         
• A list of affirmations about being a writer  

I have the feeling that I’d get a good deal of fun putting these kits together. Do you dare me? And if you know a writer who’s on a diet right now, would this be a good alternative to an Easter egg. (Skip the chocolate bar!)

Writing History

I’m currently working on my second Holocaust project. This is the story of one Clara Lehrs, born in 1871 and exterminated in 1942 at Treblinka. I’m writing about her life from 1918, when her husband died, until her own death in 1947. See more on my blog The House onSchellberg Street.

I have the bare bones of the story and if I divide that into scenes there is pretty well a full length book – probably about 90,000 words.

Two types of details

Concrete facts        

In order to tell the story accurately there are certain things I really need to know:

• Where people lived
• Where they married
• Where children were born
• Which day of the week certain dates fall on
• What was happening in the background in key places at key times – e.g. Mecklenburg, Berlin, Jena, Stuttgart, Rexingen, 1918, 1924, 1928, 1933, 1938, 1942

Setting details

At various times I need to know about:

·         Homes

·         Clothes

·         Towns

·         Transport

·         Political problems that impinge on everyday life e.g. inflation, treatment of Jews,

·         Feelings of well-being / feelings of being oppressed

Sources of information

Primary resources

·         documents  - death / birth certificates

·         verbatim accounts written at the time

·         diaries

·         letters  

I actually own quite a few of these so that was a good start.

Repeated experience

·         train journeys through Europe

·         visits to places mentioned above plus Theresienstadt and Treblinka  

·         viewing the house on Schellberg Street

I’m planning a trip to cover this and I’ve used crowd-funding to finance it.

Research through imagination

There are some things we just cannot find out. At that point all we can do is put the characters in the situation with as many facts as we know and as much setting material as we can muster and see what happens. It almost becomes a type of “method” writing – a little like method acting.  

Procrastination tool?    

I tend to ascertain the verifiable facts before I write. However, the writing itself asks more questions. How did young married women behave in the early 1890s? What was it like living in Berlin 1871 – 1914 (la belle époque)?  What did they wear back then? Even when I’m sitting at my desk writing I tend to do two hours research to one hour of writing.

Then there are the visits and researching the concrete details.

So this particular 90,000 words will take a long time to write.  No matter, all the other activities are writerly ones and not actually a procrastination tool even if that’s what they look like.

And actually, what an interesting way to spend one’s time.    

Writing Flash Fiction

I started a project at the beginning of January this year. I intended to write one piece of flash fiction every day for the whole month. I managed it and I’m now, to some extent, addicted. You can find the work at http://gillsstonesjanuary2013.blogspot.co.uk/.

I’m not sure that actually everything I wrote is flash fiction. There are, at a stretch, pieces of memoir, some philosophy and just collections of words it pleased me to put together.  But the texts are all very short and each one makes its own point.  

It wasn’t necessarily easy all of the time though it did get easier as I went along. I was constantly searching for stories. Sometimes I’d have two or three lined up. I’d then rehearse the next story over and over in my head until it was time to write it. Now I’m actually finding it impossible not to find stories everywhere.

I was never too strict about word count. The story or the needed to be the length it needed to be. It had to be short and it had to be tightly written.

I’ve enjoyed this experience and now want to make flash - fiction or otherwise – something I write regularly, though perhaps not as often as daily.  

It is a different writing experience from what I normally do – writing for children and young people. For those texts I see a film in my head which I need to get down into prose. With my very short pieces I hear a voice telling me the story. I feel a more intimate relationship with the readers and even the narrator I have created. Intriguingly the voice in each piece is entirely different.

I’m so glad I took on this project. It has been a joy.