STARTING TO WRITE Point of View; returning to a forbidden planet.

Point of View; it's the 'forbidden planet; of writing, the bugbear of my student's lives, mostly because I go on and on and on about it. It's an important thing to get right, and can be the toughest to crack, yet it can be the most revealing part of becoming a creative writer, and it can be an incredibly flexible aspect, too.

Point of View (POV) is the hidden camera though which the reader perceives the scene...in fact all the story. It may be inside a character, so that we see the character’s thoughts and reactions to events, or move outside all characters as an omniscient narrator or move between characters, or actually be an active, present, author-voice. It is tied closely to narration, perspective and chosen protagonists, and also to interior monologue, and what I call 'filterless monologue' and what David Lodge (who is a bit more important than I am) calls Free Indirect Dialogue.

POV answers the question: whose voice tells the story or gives us the information we need to understand what is happening? Does one character control our understanding of events, or do we have an omniscient narrator who gives us facts and insights that the characters themselves do not have? How does the voice or consciousness that acts as the point of view shape our interpretations? What might happen if another point of view took charge? 

To give you the best chance of choosing the right POV for your fiction, you should know how to approach all the different ways POV can be categorized. These include:

• 3^rd Person Limited…sometimes called the 3^rd person subjective, we are limited to seeing inside one character’s head. The narrator seems to sit on his shoulder, but it’s fairly clear that the character and the narrator are not absolutely the same. 
• ^3rd Person Deep (also called unobtrusive)…dipping deeply into a single person’s head…they are the narrator…check above to see how this works with interior monologue, as we saw it used to ‘dip down’ into a character’s mind.
• 3^rd Person Wide-ranging…sometimes called the 3^rd person objective. By taking a step away from the intimacy of limited and deep, this gives the author a more neutral canvas to work on. One character is often still the central point of the narration, but the author can tell us what goes on outside their range of vision, even moving into scenes they don’t inhabit. 
• First Person…Character tells their own story – they are the narrator. It is distinguished at all times by the use of the pronoun ‘I’ and they are in every scene. 
• Omniscient….A complete range of vision over the narration – the reader will have glimpses into any character’s head the narrator pleases. The narrator knows everything and can shift in time and space at whim from character to character, inside thoughts, feelings and motives. Unlike the multi-viewpoint, the narrator can also be the writer, and make authorial comments legitimately.
• Second Person…the writer addresses a third person at all times, using the pronoun ‘you’. 
• Multi-viewpoint…This is a popular format, quite different the omniscient in that all the changes of viewpoint are at specific moments in the text; usually the changeover of scene, chapter, etc. 
• Stream of consciousness…1^st person deep interior monologue, possibly incorporated with third person, or omniscient passages
• Oddities…would include all little-used POV’s.

Definitions and Pros and Cons 

You may very well find other definitions and other explanations of POV, and, indeed, other terminologies. Try looking at Tami's blog, and her suggestions in http://tavenmoore.com/2010/close-third-person-point-of-view/  I really like her use of imagery when trying to explain this 'forbidden' subject, such as scull-hopping, using your psychic camera and the image of the balloon on a string...the balloon being the narrator, the string being the POV, and the holder of the string being the writer.

Bearing the things Tami says in mind, look at the pros and cons of each POV;

• 3^rd Person Limited. The narrator is editing the story being told. The convention stands that the writer and the character are separate beings, but so intermingled into one thought process that the reader genuinely feels they are meeting a real person on the page… In Gerry’s head a plan began to form. He thought about a new home, visualized building it. He decided the move would be in secret. A quiver of joy bubbled up his spine…We only ever see inside Gerry’s head. 
• PROS:  A good straightforward POV
• CONS: Because we are only inside on character’s head at a time we are definitely not allowed to wander into others, or view scenes the narrator is not in.

3rd Person Deep Almost all no editing takes place, the convention above is replaced with an understanding that the reader is witnessing the narrator’s thoughts…Finally, he had a plan. A new plan! Build a new home. Tell no one. Secretly move into it. That was the answer. A quiver of joy bubbled up... It would be reasonably easy to rewrite this POV into the 1^st Person, should it be necessary; the ease of such a rewrite gives you a clue to whether you’re actually writing in Deep, Limited or Wide-ranging 3^rd Person. It is in these deep perspective we reach the Free Indirect Discourse that David Lodge is able to give a historic perspective to   in his book of essays, Consciousness and the Novel.

PROS: a rich, inner feeling of attachment to the narrator. There are no secrets, everything is exposed

CONS: Hard to maintain, but that’s less of a worry because you don’t have to maintain it – you can move in and out of this deeper perspective into 3^rd Person Limited or Wide-ranging. 

3^rd Person Wide-ranging… It was clear that Gerry’s plan was working, and he was pretty sure no one had

had guessed at it yet….At first glance, this looks like 3^rd Person Limited. But it is used a lot in books where a narrator tells almost all the story themselves, except for some limited scenes, where the writer at will dips into other POV. In a second scene, Gerry's opponent might be shown briefly within a new POV, thwarting Gerry's plan. Another way of use the ‘wide range’ is by almost moving into the omniscient. 

PROS: Flexibility. It can be a lot of fun to move back from being right inside a single head

CONS: Needs professional handling or it can lose its ‘thread’ and become muddled, so not for the beginner – the writer must be absolutely sure they understand, and are in control, of their perspectives. 

First Person is a commonly used perspective, especially for autobiography… I decided to build a new home, secretly. A quiver of joy passed up my spine as I thought about it…1^st Person can, like third, be deep or limited.

PROS: We are intimate with this person. We really identify with them

CONS: we cannot ever get into anyone else’s head, or see action that the narrator is not a part of.

Omniscient. At one end of the range is the god-like perspective, where almost no character is examined closely and there is no ‘dropping down’ into anyone’s consciousness. The ‘legitimate authorial standpoint’ I mentioned above is probably the most tricky aspect for the 21stC writer, and only attempt this if you have the confidence to do so. At the other end of the omniscient range is the constant fluctuation between intimate viewpoints, even within the same sentence. Navokovich called this latter approach propelling the reader into a new angle. E.M. Foster called it ‘bouncing’. An ironic overview is therefore possible. Authorial…Poor Gerry! Little did he know that Lewis was on his case. Readers, I can tell you now that Gerry’s plan was about to fail…Constant fluctuation...Lewis was thinking that Gerry didn’t have a chance. Gerry, however, had a plan and it was sending quivers of joy up his spine... 

PROS; Excellent for stories in which a richer effect would be created by knowing what several characters think – generally gives a ‘lifted’ tone to work, but can be used to achieve a detached, humorous tone. 

CONS: The ‘hovering above the characters’ aspect can feel cold and unaffecting. One way of achieving the effect of an omniscient viewpoint is to approach is casually; i.e. write your chosen piece mostly in a wide-ranging 3^rd person, becoming authorial on necessary occasions. But the major con is that this is devilishly difficult to achieve well – most of the examples of omniscient I see as a tutor are errors of judgement on the writer’s part; they’ve moved outside their chosen POV without realizing it. However, once you’ve ‘got’ the voice, it can work very well.  

Second Person.  This is a tricky one to understand, and rightly so, it should only be used sparingly. Although identified by the use of the pronoun ‘you’ it broadly separates into two approaches; the first where the writing feels like correspondence (most friendly letters are in the 2^nd  person) and those where an ‘I’ who is actually doing the writer is hiding inside the text. Second person narratives require a strong suspension of disbelief as the writer invites the reader to become the character.  When handled well this method can quickly draw the reader in and lend a sense of urgency and excitement to a story. A story can seem to be written in the 2^nd Person POV, but further along into the story, it is revealed that the narrator is actually watching the scene from a distance. This POV is useful in certain specific areas. Fighting Fantasy books (children’s interactive stories) are one; self-help books are another. Magazine articles look good in this POV…You are planning to build a new home. What is the first thing you should be doing?

PROS: eye-catching in the short story. Achieved well, it can make the reader feel as if they are the character

CONS: Achieved less well, it can make the reader feel distant to the character. Is very hard to maintain.

Multi-viewpoint This perspective is used a lot by saga authors, and is also useful in crime fiction. It is probably least useful in ‘true’ romance, where the reader wants to get under the skin on one character (usually the heroine), and also in the short story. Authors use the multi-viewpoint very flexibly, including 3^rd and 1^st Person, even the omniscient or 2^nd Person, within a single novel. 

PROS: It’s flexible and yet remains intimate.

CONS: There is a definite problem with the ‘changeovers’ – readers find it hard to move on from an established favourite. Try to do these changes only at the start of new sections, chapters or parts 

Stream of consciousness Technically this is just the next step into the very deep 3rd Person; it can, however also be used in the first person. It is a literary devise, beloved of the Modernists and extremely difficult to maintain, and best served in fairly small doses. This is the ultimate in personal interior monologues, in which every thought that runs through the character’s head will be documented (or, as with natural dialogue, ‘seem to’. 

PROS: this is a literary style which needs careful thought and attention. Equal to cooking a perfect meringue. 

CONS: Not relevant to a non-literary style. 

Oddities. There are many other perspectives writing can take, such as the plural first person…we’ll build a home together…and plural third person…They built a home, secretly… Rarely you will come upon examples of perspective moving way out of the normal range, as with the wolf cub’s POV in Michell Paver’s Wolf Brother or trying to get into an alien’s head without humanizing their thoughts. Read Julio Cortázar’s short stories, particularly Axolotl, in which the perspective transforms from a man looking at an amphibian into that of the amphibian.

PROS/CONS; Use these sparingly and judiciously. Bit like eating a meringue!

Choosing the Right POV

POV is one of the most effective ways of approaching how you will narrate a story you are planning, but that doesn’t make the decision any easier. Luckily it’s there is no reason (other than it is somewhat time consuming) why you cannot change POV at the end of a first draft.

You might like to ask some of the following questions about the project you are undertaking at the moment:

• What do you want the reader to know, and therefore, who is the best character to reveal these things…or not?
• The three 3^rd Person POV’s (limited, wide-ranging and deep) are so close in construction that it is possible to allow a single piece of work to move between them at will, without having technically gone outside  the 3^rd Person POV - ask if it might be to your advantage to be more flexible if you are using 3rd person.
• Whose voice would tell the story in the most gripping manner?
• Which voice gives us the crucial information we need to understand what is happening? 
• Do you want only one character to control our understanding of events, or would it be preferable to have an omniscient narrator furnishing facts and insights that the characters themselves do not have? 
• Do you need a second perspective to allow the reader to see things a single POV will not cover?
• Some writers apply first person perspective to a secondary, rather than main, character.  Such works can allow for a broader view or take an observational role. Nuances of interpretation may be developed in this way. Classic examples include Harper Lee’s To Kill a Mockingbird and F. Scott Fitzgerald’s The Great Gatsby.Would this be a good move for your story?
• Almost by definition the reader will perceive the POV character as the most important in a scene and will remain sympathetic to that character. This is a crucial point when deciding which POV to use, especially if you’ve chosen multi-viewpoint. 
• First person perspective also raises questions of reliability. You can hint to the reader, that they should not believe what the character says.  Stories of childhood can be told through the eyes of a child or an adult looking back. When told through the child’s eyes, care must be taken to prevent adult language or an adult perspective from slipping in—a tricky challenge when the story still needs to be told in language that appeals to adult readers.

There are some conventions to this aspect of writing fiction;

1. The ‘voice’ of your narrator must be absorbing, rewarding and attractive to a reader 
2. Most readers cannot ‘take’ – or at least ‘dislike’ a lot of changes in POV in one novel. The convention is that only one narrator should ‘carry’ a scene or chapter – swapping POV during scenes is dangerous and can lose the reader. This is what the ‘omniscient’ achieves more successfully, but it does need a skilful hand. 
3. In the short story, this convention is magnified. It is advisable for only to allow one person to narrate the story, at least, depending on the word count the very minimum of POVs should be attempted, and it might be better to choose the omniscient than to swap around between short duration scenes.
4. Another convention is that only major characters in the novel should carry a POV. Allowing minor characters to have sections to themselves is dangerous because it gives out the wrong message…readers will assume the character carries more weight than it actually does. (This runs alongside the convention about dialogue we looked at earlier)
5. The voice or consciousness that acts as POV shapes the reader’s interpretations. This therefore is a major consideration when choosing POV. 
6. The perception fallacy slides a narrator into the omniscient (The rain fell...rather than...I felt the rain falling) This is a common POV error – don’t worry about it too much, but can lead to a ‘passive’ feel to the writing.
7. In fact there are many slips t’wixt POV theory and the actual writing of fiction; even distinguished writers often fall between these. My advice to the new writer is to learn the foundation criteria well, so that you avoid POV errors that make you appear an apprentice rather than a master craftsman – errors such as slipping between 1^st and 3^rd person. Once you have the basics under your belt, you can experiment with POV with confidence and a certain degree of impunity; self-belief counts for a lot in creative writing.

Intimacy and POV

It isn’t necessarily true that the omniscient inclines towards tell, while more intimate perspectives incline towards show, but there is a danger than the omniscient can stray into telling more easily. Check the two sentences below:

It was snowing already when Bertie left his house to clear the drift around his car…

Bertie armed himself with a spade. Chill hit his face as he left the house. A drift of snow, high as a wedding cake, surrounded the Vauxhall…

Although in such short sentences it’s not yet entirely clear with POV we might be in, one is nudging us towards and intimacy with Bertie and one is not.

Choosing the appropriate POV can often aid the writer in knowing what their story is about, and how it should be structured. Approaching Bertie from above, as in the first example will result in a very different story to one that approaches Bertie from inside, as does the second example.

Distinguishing Interior Monologue 

The novice writer sometimes has difficulty distinguishing exposition from interior monologue. This is understandable, as both can look the same laid out on the page, and in fact, some exposition is an interior monologue – possibly the best way to lay out facts in an expositional way is to use interior monologue. 

It might be said that the entire narration of a fiction written in the first person becomes internal monologue - look at the opening of Catcher in the Rye, for instance. Allowing the outside narrator of the 3^rd Person to become invisible and create the illusion that the reader is in direct contact with the character helps the reader both identify with the character and pulls them into the story . This ‘dropping down’ into the mind of a character is sometimes called perspective filter, suggesting a lens of perspective that makes the author as unobtrusive as possible. To accomplish a filterless monologue, steer clear of turns of phrases that your character would not use in their mind. Phrases like ‘he thought’  or ‘he realized’ and adverbs that qualify  perspective such as ‘apparently’ or ‘seemingly’,  pull the reader away by reminding them that the character is actually doing some thinking, and that an external narrator is telling us so. To get round this problem, the character’s thoughts are directly communicated, so keeping the reader in close proximity to the action. Make sure your reader ‘follows you into the interior’ by missing out the pronoun or name of the character. This will quickly create a demarcation between monologue and description and action. Here is an extract  from my novel for older children, Sweet’n’Sour;

The dragon was coming. Scarlet and gold, its mouth as wide as an open window, it swayed  down the centre of the road. The crowd cheered Low Hee cheered. This was why he’d waited all morning in the sun.

Low Hee and some of his mates from school were messing around in the crowds, scooting between legs, laughing when people nearly toppled. Because it was the last day of the New Year celebrations, their victims laughed back. Old women handed them laisee envelopes, red packets stuffed with coins, and everyone tossed sweets at everyone.

Now, he realized, he was too far back. Cymbals and bells, tumblers and jugglers came first in the procession but the dragon would soon be in view. All Low Hee could see were the heads in front. He dropped to his knees and wriggled between two sets of silk-draped legs. He would be at the front of the crowd in seconds.

‘Come here!’ 

Low Hee’s grandmother had him by the sleeve of his coat. Her face was grim. He stopped his wriggling.

‘I wasn’t doing anything,’ he mumbled, quickly swallowing a mouthful of chocolate bar. ‘And the dragon is coming!’

Sweet’n’Sour Nina Milton

This is the opening from the book, but we're already on the borderline of Low Hee’s interior monologue, especially at: Now, he realized, he was too far back.

....

He would be at the front of the crowd in seconds...

To be technically accurate, it would be safer to categorize most of this as description... Cymbals and bells, tumblers and jugglers came first in the procession ...and action... dropped to his knees and wriggled ...

 If we were further on in the story, I would  want to 

tip it over into monologue. All I have to do is get just a little closer… He was too far back. How had that happened? The cymbals and bells rang louder, louder. The dragon would soon be in view, but there was nothing to see but the heads in front. He dropped to his knees, wriggling between two sets of legs, silk slicking against his cheek. He would be at the front of the crowd in seconds...

Free Indirect Discourse

I’m trying, in my rewrite, to allow the outside narrator to become invisible and create the illusion that the reader is in direct contact with the character. This ‘dropping down’ into the mind of a character is sometimes called free indirect discourse, which is a bit of a mouthful, so I usually refer to this as filterless monologue. A perspective filter suggests a lens of perspective that makes the author as unobtrusive as possible. Interior Monologue and Point of View work closely together to create the personal voice/persona the writer wants to use in any given piece of work. To accomplish a filterless monologue, In the Sweet’n’Sour rewrite, I avoided phrases phrases like ‘as ever’ and ‘therefore’ and ‘Low thought’  or ‘he realized’, and adverbs that qualify  perspective such as ‘apparently’ or ‘seemingly’, because this tends to pull the reader away by reminding them that the character is actually doing some thinking. Instead, the character’s thoughts are directly communicated, so keeping the reader in close proximity to the action.

Clearly, interior monologue is invaluable in allowing the reader a hint of what characters are thinking, by allowing us to listen in to their thoughts, so extending the reader’s identity with them and breathing vitality into a portrayal. It can successfully be use to engineer one of the most widespread needs for exposition, too; that of introducing new facts or elements. Introducing information thought monologue in place of straightforward exposition is another aspect of showing rather than telling.  Without dropping the emotional content of the narrative, which is often what happens when exposition alone is used to explain story, the new detail is communicated directly between character and reader.  

Comments from you;

Please get back via the comment button with your thoughts on perspective; offer your own best loved fictional examples of different POVs, too, please.

Acclaim for In the Moors.

Midnight Ink is poised to publish my novel IN THE MOORS, the first novel in the Shaman Mysteries series, featuring Sabbie Dare, a 28 year old shamanic counsellor and complimentary therapist, who simply cannot prevent herself investigating the strange lives of her clients. It will be out on the 8th August in the USA and on the 8th September here. Acclaim is arriving from those lucky people who have pre-read the manuscript prior to publication:

 From Ronal Hutton, author  of The Triumph of the Moon (Oxford University Press, Shamans (Hambledon and London), and Blood and Mistletoe; The History of Druids (Yale University Press)… 

In the Moors has a cracking pace, evocative landscapes and a shocking twist at the end; I’ve rarely read depictions of shamanic journeying that have felt so authentic. 

'From Ali Bacon, author of A Kettle of Fish (Thornberry Publishing)…

"A truly spooky story set in the Somerset Levels, which had me on the edge of my seat". 

From Gail Richards, Director, Red Central…

 The atmospheric location gripped me instantly; there's a sense of foreboding throughout the story. Sabbie's positive outlook on life and her faith in her shamanic journies brilliantly carries the reader through the twists and turns of this dark and intriguing mystery. She's a refreshingly different central character I'd like to read more of. 

 You can already order this book on Amazon at a reduction; put your order in so that you can have your say; Are Nina Milton's Shaman Mysteries going to be the Next Big Thing?

The rain-drenched moors near shamanistic counselor Sabbie Dare's home have become the scene of a chilling crime. When Detective Sergeant Reynard Buckley shows up suggesting her new client, Cliff Houghton—a wounded, broken man—has something to do with the body of a young boy found buried in the moors, Sabbie believes Cliff is being set up. Continuing the therapy she'd begun with Cliff, Sabbie uncovers repressed memories hearkening back to a decades-old string of abductions and murders. But after another boy is abducted, only Sabbie can prove Cliff's innocence . . . and find the real culprit before any more lives are shattered...

...Embark on Nina Milton…and you won’t stop reading… 

(Naomi Lewis, Sunday Observer) 

Radio Two's Children's Writers

• BBC Radio 2 has just announced the results of its short story competition aimed at children up to the age of 13. Oganised by the Chris Evans Breakfast Show, this is the second year the Oxford University Press has analysed the words (all 40 million of them) within the entries in order to monitor and track children's language.
  There were nearly 100,000 entries to the 500 word length competition, and I was delighted by some of their contents. For instance, children writers are using similes that might make some adult writers look cliched and stale. What about; 
• As trustworthy as a fox with a chicken feather poking out of its mouth
• As slow as a snail with 25 shells on its back
• As boring as a cake with no candles
• My heart fades like a balloon with a hole in it
• "WHAT? Noooooooooo!" howled Lydiea, like a werewolf with a toothache
• Her face looked like a pig with chickenpox
• He's crying out like a grasshopper with a burnt leg

 

Children have the Mary Poppins touch for made-up language

Here are some of the new words they invented in their stories - such great ones, such as fridgemarine and shrinkinganator, that a data base has been created. Here are some of the best;

He made a disflomaticinator. It would make stuff from the past come into the present and stuff from the future come into the present. I will sell this on eBay, he said. I will sell this for 123456789123456789 million billion trillion dollars.
My fear was hairthlessquipadoliciousphobioa (fear of beards) but people don't believe me what so ever.
I told them that this ghost is one of a kind called a lumbagain ghost who makes people dull and boring.Shockingly he only gets children but when it gets mad he could get teachers and only comes to schools.
My fear was Hairthlessquipadoliciousphobioa (fear of beards) but people don't believe me what so ever.
Dulbodogfragonaffe is very big animal with the head of a duck and the mane of a lion. The neck of a giraffe and the body of a horse. The wings of a bee and the front legs of a dog. The back legs of a from and the tail of a dragon. The spikes on its back of a hedgehog and the ears of a rabbit. All over it is an orangey-pinky coloured.

Reasuringly, text speak was not used as much as might have been feared. Most uses of, say, 'blackberry' denoted a fruit, although most uses of the word 'text' referred to phone use. New slang words have emerged from the submissions, including yolo (you only live once) and rofi (roll on the floor laughing).
The analysis shows that we tend to become more humdrum about our lives as we grow up. Among the top five two-noun words for kids were "time machine", "space ship", and "tree house". By the time people reach adulthood, these words have been replaced by the more mundane, functional terms like "car park" and "kitchen sink", with the missing link that unites generations being ice cream, which reaches the top five in the OUP data bases both kids and adults! 
Gender differences  showed a bit.Girls wrote more about pop stars More boys wrote about sport and used words like 'gun', 'sword' and 'battle'. . Apparently a rule was introduced to prevent boys killing off every single character.

But what I loved to learn is that the stories were imaginative, varied and full of passion for getting things down on paper. The sheer scale of the entries is heartening, and I do commend Radio 2 for getting this so right; kids really wanted to take part. 

go to      http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/magazine-22714629    to read the rest of the article

Alice Walker: The Desert Island Discs from a Stellar Author

I was fascinated by last week's Desert Island Discs, in which Pulitzer Price winnerAlice Walker talked not only about her life's work as a writer, but also her childhood and young adulthood. She spoke movingly about the accident that affected her life as a child, but that initiated her writing, and generally of experiencing racism in the south of the US. 

The Colour Purple  was lambasted by some people in the US, and her diary, Honouring the Difficult, addressed the criticism. She has one child and also talked about motherhood in a way I found fascinating. I loved to hear about her relationship with the earth; how she eats her own vegetables and keeps chickens. Her position on how she tackles a poem, in contrast to a novel, is worth listening to. You can still catch the entire programme pm http://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/b01shstm

 I loved her choice of records, which included the wondrous Stevie Wonder et al., and wondered what my own would be. Possibly, I would follow my own life and start with Gilbert and Sullivan, which I sang to at my father's piano, and take in Mendelssohn's Octet, the overture to La Boheme, Queen and the Beatles.

But, when I was quite small, my half brother emigrated to Oz. His two children wer more or less my age and at first we wrote letters to them, but they were not very good at replying. Then, out of the blue, a reel of audio tape arrived in the post. Clearly, we were supposed to play this. My mother went straight out and bought a reel-to-reel player and we listened to Harold, Mel, Stuart and wife Pat talking to us all the way from the other side of the world. Now we could also record our voices and send reels back. But even this trailed off...very soon we weren't communicating. So, at the time I was just beginning to listen to pop music, I had total control of the tape recorder. I spend untold happy hours listening to Radio One and recording the hits of the time. I made it my business to try to get the entire top twenty for each week - quite an obsession. After a bit, though, old reels began to hold really treasured recordings that I didn't tape over in my quest for the new top twenties. Quite recently, I tried to remember what these were. I'm still catching up, but I'm sure they included....

The night has a thousand eyes - Bobby Vee

Hey Jude - the Beatles - well, anything by the Beatles

Feel me, touch me - The Who

McCartha Park (who was this?)

Whiter shade of Pale – procol harem

Woodstock  Crossby stills and Nash

Bohemian Rhapsody Queen/don't stop me now - well, anything by Queen

YMCA villagte people

American Pie – don Maclean

I’m not in Love 10CC

25 or 6 to 4 – Chicago

Spinning Wheel- blood Sweat and Tears

Matchstick men and Matchstick Cats and Dogs Brian and Michael

Midnight by the Oasis Maria Muldaur

Dancing in the street Martha and the Vandellas

Space Oddity = David Bowie

Saturday Night’s alright for Fighting – Elton John

Dancing in the Moonlight King Harvest

It’s raining Men – the Weather Girls

OKAY, by the time some of these were released, there were no more reel-to-reel recorders in the shops, but you get the idea...

BE INTERESTED TO HEAR OTHER PEOPLES FAVOURITE MEMORY TUNES

http://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/b01shstm

IN THE MOORS now on order!

I'm delighted to announce that my crime fiction book for adults, IN THE MOORS, the first Shaman Mystery, is now available to order. Save yourself the bother of doing it later and put an order in now with Amazon; postage is free and the book is a under a tenner - not just a bargain, but a cracking good read.

Published by crime imprint Midnight Ink, endorsements for my work are already in; including this one from Professor Ronald Hutton, author of Blood and Mistletoe (Yale University Press) and Shamans (Hambledon and London):

 In the Moors has a cracking pace, evocative landscapes and a shocking twist at the end, and I’ve rarely read depictions of shamanic journeying that have felt so authentic. 

To order a copy, just click on the book cover in the right-hand margin of this blog, or go to Amazon Uk and type in my name, which will also take you to all my children's books.

And don't forget you can still download my latest story for 9+ young readers, TOUGH LUCK, which has been doing well, with 5star reviews on Amazon and these great endorsements from fellow writers; 

Gripping storytelling – Brandon’s voice is strong and convincing, his world vividly imagined...Jane Rogers, author of the Arthur C. Clark award-winning The Testament of Jesse Lamb (Standstone Press) 

Embark on Nina Milton…and you won’t stop reading… 

(Naomi Lewis, Sunday Observer) 

TOUGH LUCK is a multi-cultural fable, a painless history lesson, and very good fun.  A first rate young adult read...Jean Burnett, author of Who Needs Mr Darcy? (Sphere)

An engaging and moving novel, Tough Luck tackles issues that confront most teenagers today. Drawing upon Bristol’s dark history of the slave trade, this story of inner-city racial tensions challenges children to think about the ability of individuals to make their own luck and so change the future...Shirley Wright, author of Time out of Mind (Thornberry) 

My latest novel for children, Tough, Luck now live on Amazon. Go to: 

http://www.amazon.co.uk/Tough-Luck-ebook/dp/B00AKYS0O4/ref=sr_1_2?ie=UTF8&qid=1355128861&sr=8-2

Writing Without a Parachute by Barbara Turner-Vesselago

I’m someone who would not be up for jumping from a plane. I was worried that Barbara Turner-Vesselago’s book, Writing Without a Parachute’would give me vertigo, especially with the subtitle The Art of Freefall. But this kind of writing, I discovered as I read, is something I already encourage in my students, and practice myself. ‘Falling into writing’ is something that can benefit every writer. There is no creativity in being tightly held and cautious, especially in the first draft. 

I was slightly relieved, though, to find that there is a safety net within the book. It’s organized into Five Precepts, which guide you; Writing what Comes Up; Not Changing Anything; Specific, Sensual Detail, Following the Energy and Waiting Ten Years. These are pieces of valuable advice which offer a route through the book and allow the words to flow. Each chapter concludes with a set of exercises to get you writing – in themselves they make the book invaluable. 

Vesselago’s writing is ‘mindful’, her freefall writing is ‘with intention’ at all times. I loved her quote...there are no memory police. It’s so easy to get bogged down with ‘head stuff’, such as ‘should I write this…what would my mother say?’ 

Despite the possibility of plummeting to earth, the book offers swathes of practical advice. First up – find a writing partner. I’ve just moved house and had to leave my wonderful writing partner behind; although we still support each other by phone and email. The chapter on A Poet’s Way of Mind is something I feel crucial to good writing, and there are excellent sections on Show, don’t Tell and Dialogue.

Although this might be a good addition to any writers bookcase, I think it’s a particularly necessary read for writers who are just beginning seriously to write, and writers who have got themselves in some sort of writing jam. I got into one of those almost ten years ago now; my solution was to do an MA. It cost me thousands. This book is a lot cheaper and might just do the trick. If in doubt, jump from the plane and fly!

Go to 

http://www.valapublishers.coop/writingwithoutaparachute

to order the book.

Raw Head and Bloody Bones; does an MA in Creative Writing lead to Writing Success?

In this occasional series, "How They Got Published  – Stories of Writing Success", we look at how writers got their very first contract; the story of how that happened and how they are so very willing to share their advice with other hopeful writers.

Increasingly, I get emails or letters from my students asking me to supply a reference for an MA programme in creating writing. Occasionally (but not always) they also ask me; will I gain anything from this? Is it worth they money and the time? Will I enjoy the experience? 

Almost without fail, my answer is; you will benefit enormously, both as a writer and a person. And, so long as you love your work to be honestly critiqued and you are the sort of person who would thrive in an academic environment, then, yes you will enjoy yourself. 

Not many people actually ask me what I think of the courses; are they well thought through, have good lecturers, are well laid out? If they do, I respond that I can, of course, only speak for the MA pathway at Bath Spa, and that's changed and grown quite a bit since I was there. Mostly, MA teaching is peer led; the students critique each other's work and the lecturer guides the workshopping experience. Lecturers may also lead workshops that investigate specifics; in my one year course, I did 'Writing for Children and Young Adults', 'Political Writing' and 'The Novel'. There are often extra-curricular events that allow 'networking' with publishers. Most students will create a long work which will be minutely mentored by a single lecturer. All these things build a good MA programme. 

I know this question is in every candidate's mind, but very rarely do they ask me; will my MA get me a contract?

And the answer to that one? Your writing will get you the contract. But you can certainly gain two things; help and mentoring to improve the basic production and a place to focus your mind on getting to the end of a piece of work.

Since I was on the Bath Spa MA programme, I've known several  students get published, but they will be the exceptions, not the rule. First up was Ally Kennon. She completed her book Beast on the MA, and she's gone on to write many books for children and young adults including Sparks and Bullet Boys both in the running for the Guardian Prize.  At the same time, Lucy Christopher finished Flyaway on the MA, and was nominated for the Costa Award, and has also published the acclaimed Stolen.

More recently, a friend of mine from Bristol has completed the MA, is back at Bath Spa to complete a PHd. The Tale of Raw Head and Bloody Bones, published by Chatto and Windus, is a startlingly imaginative story set in the world of Henry Fielding. I have described it as 'the thinking man's 50 shades', as one of the major themes in the book is an exploration of the desire to hurt and be hurt, but what stands it apart for me is its 'persona' or 'voice'. Wolf has chosen not to take the usual advice about writing an historical novel, which is to create a tone of voice that 'feels like', but does not emulate, the style of the day. Instead, he takes the speech and writing patterns of the mid 18th Century and runs with them, creating a fascinating first person character that could have stepped out of  Tom Jones - except that this is a darker tale told for the 21st Century..."What I did know, know for certain, was that I had wanted to cause Pain to Lady B. - I had wanted to heal her, too; but I had wanted to hear her Scream... We were Monsters, both of us; or perhaps fallen Angels" It is never perfectly clear if Tristan Hart is totally sane; the call of faerie is never far from his mind and he clearly sees things that others do not, and fears things that the Age of Reason had by then discredited. But at the end of the story, all feels real and substantial. This novel has the feel of a first attempt, but it is a stunning attempt. 

And myself? Weirdly, I didn't take the MA to get published. I was blocked by a book that was doing my head in, and knew I would either give up writing or push myself through it. But since then my published career has gone from strength to strength and I know I learnt masses on the MA that help the process. I also was told on the course, that I might have some skill in teaching - and that's mostly what I thank the staff at Bath Spa for. I love my job as a tutor with the OCA, and, as much as the MA itself, mentoring and tutoring other writers has made me a better writer myself.

I'd love to hear other writer's opinions - and their experience of the MA life. Do you think it's 'worth the money' Do you think most student assume they'll be published afterwards? And was it, as it was for me, the turning point in your writing life?

To read other blogposts about how writers got published, click here

In the Moors; finally the cover revealed!

Here it is, the wonderful, understated and atmospheric cover to my new book. The photographer has really achieved what I'd hoped for and the strap line...A Shaman Mystery...is going to pull the punter in, I'm sure.

It should be available from late autumn of this year, from Midnight Ink, and you'll be able to buy in as a paperback or as an e-book.







Sabbie Dare walks between worlds...trying to help her shamanic clients while living a self-sufficient life in the sleepy town of Bridgwater. She wakes from a nightmare to find it has come true – a fox has raided her chickens. She’s hoping new boyfriend Ivan will help repair the hen-house, but he’s wants to shoot the fox. So when a detective called Reynard arrives at her house, she’s suspicious of the coincidence. Rey is the archetypal humourless, maverick policeman, and their relationship begins like an upmarket cocktail – bitter and full of ice, but with a sparkler fizzing at the edge.  Rey likes to play his hunches and expects Sabbie to help him finger her new client, Cliff Houghton, for a horrific child killing. Then a second boy goes missing and Cliff is implicated in the kidnap.Cliff’s shamanic otherworld reveals dreadful secrets to Sabbie and although she’s sure of his innocence, proving it becomes a threat to her own survival. Sabbie needs to visit the dead child's shallow grave, out in the Somerset moors. She is so determined to find the truth, she hardly notices that she’s hurtling towards a dark and certain place of death… 

A new writing club from the Daily Telegraph

Have you discovered the Daily Telegraph’s Short Story Club? After decades (and decades) of neglect  and positive dislike, readers are returning to the short story. The Costa Prize has inaugurated a short story prize (see my previous post), and there is a further raft of competitions that offer prize winnings that should attract writers of note, as well as hopefuls – because a surprising number of our favourite novelists write short stories; they seem to almost do it ‘on the quiet. Recently I’ve enjoyed stories by Deborah Levy, Rose Tremain, Ian McEwan Kate Atkinson, Joanna Harris, M.J Hyland and Jane Gardam. 

 Isobelle Carmody, the Australian author who writes both novels and short stories says, The short story form allows evocation, suggestion, implication. Its potency often lies in what it does not say.

I think she’s hit at least one of the nails on the head with this remark. A short story cannot, and should not do the same things as a novel. It should not lay out, expand, explore widely, or tell everything. It should hint and suggest, implicate and haunt. Even shorter than Carmody's, V.S. Pritchett’s definition is perfect...something glimpsed from the corner of the eye, in passing. Maybe, finally, the British reading public have realized that a good short story can be balm for our souls as we travel on the tube through the rush hour, or grab five minutes in our lunch hour.

The Daily Telegraph website is cashing in on this sudden interest. It runs a thriving Creative Writing group where members can get feedback on their work and run their own, user-led competition, which is judged by the previous month’s winner. Now they’ve also started a Short Story Club It’s run by writer Louise Doughty and is rather a vehicle for the short story writing course she offers within the club, but her blog posts are lively, none the less. This club is also running a complicated but interesting  Short Story Club competition, which will offer the chance of publication online every month and the chance of a bit prize at the end of the year. Every week, Doughty, who says of this sudden resurgence, magically, mysteriously, short fiction, that butterfly of a literary form, is back, will set a writing task that can be incorporated into new ideas for a new story. 

I surfed to the site and enjoyed a brief moment of reading, with an abridged version of a story that appears in Diving Belles by Lucy Wood, published next week by Bloomsbury. Like me, Lucy explores magical realism in her short fiction; this story is about a woman who has been using a special cream on her eyes...which allows her to see the world of the fay. But it is cleverly told, in the 2nd person POV, by her daughter, who knowing nothing of this, uses the cream by chance. It’s a very good use of the magical and mysterious, and what it does not say is far more important than what it does say. http://www.telegraph.co.uk/culture/books/9013449/Exclusive-story-by-Lucy-Wood-Of-Mothers-and-Little-People.html

In the meantime, my most recent story The Illuminated Back  will be out this month. This story is also about self-discovery and an unasked-for sudden magical power, but it's settings could not be more different than Woods...I use an armomatherapy clinic and the sandy terrain of the British Army on manouevre. You can chart the progress of the anthology at http://www.chuffedbuffbooks.com/titles/you-me-and-a-bit-of-we/

I thought I’d try one of Doughty’s exercises to see if it kick-started a new story, but her most recent suggestion takes me straight be to my my bookcase by suggesting we look at collections of short fiction and ask: what makes multi-author anthologies work?

The truth is that I find creating and polishing a short story as much hard work as most of the writing around an entire novel. The Illuminated Back took me several months to perfect; I kept going back to it, rethinking what the story was about. As Henry David Thoreau once said...Not that the story need be long but it will take a long while to make it short....

INAUGURAL COSTA SHORT STORY AWARD: Success for my OCA Student

Good, work, Guy, a straight 'A' for your homework and a nice cheque for £750 into the bargain! Guy worked with me on Writing Skills, sending marvellous stories to me at level one of the OCA degree course, which he's still pursuing. But in the meantime, he's honed one of his stories to perfection and has rightly landed himself third place in the inaugural Costa Short Story Award, alongside writers that include Chioma Okereke and Sally Vickers.

Guy Le Jeune's story, Small Town Removal is about a man who returns to his home town for the funeral of his father. This is a theme that has been written about many times before. Michael, the protagonsit opens a packet of the Tayto crisps he ate as a child, and memories flow into him. This is also a technique that has also been used more times than any of us can count. But neither of these things matter because Guy has put some simple but effective strategies into place to draw us into his deeply moving story.

Description of narrative is something the OCA course Writing Skills highlights. It recommends the writer uses all the 5 of their senses when describing...although I recommend adding a pinch of the 6th sense, too.

The first sense that Guy uses is the sensation of touch, in the form of that blistering, prickly feeling of being too hot. From this, he creates the mood he uses throughout the story. The unusual heat of a summer's day crafts a mood the reader can wallow in...

There is heat, here in this small town. A dead heat. It sulks in the valley, as

blue storms build, up beyond the grey ridge. It is the kind that clings to you

and smothers your breath...

However, describing via the senses is an extremely responsive area of writing, and it’s not good to overwhelm the reader with too much sound. The wise author knows that a little can go a long way...although he doesn't tell us to smell the brackish water, we can almost do so without his bidding ...

Down here by the canal there is no wind. Along the lane, the thick water slides

past cows stretched out on tufts of sun-shorn rushes and wet meadow. The

banks are crumbling, spilling earth into the cut. The water is sluggish out

among the fields, but closer to the town it has the pace of tides.

Guy uses the sense of taste to introduce us to the character's memories...

He sits again and pours the cider into the glass, listening to the ice creak and shatter. A wasp flits around the bottle top as Michael drinks. He opens the Tayto and he is back again in a cheese and onion childhood.

Alongside mood, describing landscape and location (often referred to in writerly terms as the milieu) helps build depth and atmosphere. 

The main street is still. No vehicles move in either direction. The shops close, blinds are drawn, the pub doors shut. People line the street. They wait together, hands crossed. Michael can smell tobacco smoke from across the road. The cigarettes are stubbed. Heads turn to face down towards the bridge.

  

As well as using smell in the above passage, notice also the use of hearing – that is the suggestion that everything has gone quiet. 

Guy's use of  the sense hearing continues to build tension into the story. From the start, we're introduced to the sound of the weir. At this point in the story, we've moved away from the canal into the centre of town, but the sound has followed the protagonist, Michael. eating into his senses...

Michael can hear the canal weir now. It is the first time he has ever noticed the noise from the main street. It reminds him of radio static and John Joseph chasing the airwaves for dance music on Radio Éireann. Michael remembers the dials on the radio, the amber glow of the valves, his father searching up and down around the word Athlone on the backlit Bakelite.

Guy has rightly had this great story placed in a prestigious award. He's written about a common event and the sorts of memories ordinary people can identify and empathise with. But he's presented them to the reader in a heightened form that is unforgettable, using that '6th sense' I mentioned earlier – in Small Town Removal, Guy has created a personal voice that feels very intimate. This reinforces the mood and atmosphere he's already built.

All of this careful work, constructing a story word by word, has resulted in triumph. Guy says;

“I’m delighted and a little amazed to be shortlisted for the inaugural Costa Short Story Award. I only started writing seriously two years ago, so being shortlisted for such a prestigious award is extraordinary and rather humbling. ‘Small Town Removal’ was inspired by the real events of a summer’s afternoon in Ballinamore, County Leitrim, a place where I draw a lot of my ideas from. It is a area where stories and characters seem to be written into the clay of Sliabh An Iarainn. I owe a debt of gratitude to the words and genius of John McGahern, whose works brought me to Leitrim and the slopes of the Iron Mountain. The characters and location of ‘Small Town Removal’ are central to my novel in progress, entitled ‘On a Hammered Copper Hillside’.”

I'm delighted too, but I'm not all that amazed.

Tough Luck; read an extract on Joanna's blog

My very good writing friend and fellow OCA tutor, Joanna Ezekiel, has just finished reading my latest children's book, Tough Luck, and said she was gripped! She is featuring my book on her blog this month:

Special january feature: Nina Milton

Today we are excited to feature an extract from a new e-book for children by writer and OCA creative writing tutor Nina Milton. It is called Tough Luck, is available here from Amazon, and, in my opinion, is a very enjoyable read, full of links between past and present, and lively characters....

 Read the rest of her post  at: http://mydelayedreactions.blogspot.co.uk/2013/01/special-january-feature-nina-milton.html