A DIY guide.
I decided on Monday that I would talk about this. On Tuesday Chuck Wendig, freelance penmonkey, posted 25 Things Authors should know about finding their voice on his blog, at which point I threw my hands in the air and went “Oh, fine, I won’t write a blog post then!”
(Because, let’s be honest, I am outclassed in every way, and that’s not a competition I want to get into.)
However, I read the post and then I read it again, and while it says many useful and entertaining things about finding your voice – many things which if you’re at all interested, you should go and read now – it didn’t quite say the one thing I was going to say. So I’m going to say the one thing anyway. Possibly in a slightly smaller voice than I might have done if I’d got in first. But then if I had got in first, I would be even more embarrassed and without the chance to say so.
Polite British self depreciating introduction over with, here’s what I was thinking recently about finding your style as an author. It’s couched in the form of a ramble about cover art, but there is a point in there somewhere, like a pin left behind in a tailored suit – useful if you can get it out, but a nagging worry if you can’t.
I started making cover art a while ago. It’s nice to have something that engages parts of your brain that writing cannot reach. When I set out to make my first cover, I had no idea what my style would be. I would have said it was a bit pretentious of me to hope to have a style at all. All I wanted to do was to put some pictures together in a way that would result in the sort of cover I could imagine on a book.
So I got some photos I liked and fiddled with them until they looked OK together, and paged through fonts until I found some I thought looked nice, and I made my first cover. I didn’t worry about style. I didn’t say “what’s going to be my signature move? What’s going to be the thing that identifies this as a cover by me, as opposed to someone else? What’s my cover artist’s voice?”
I didn’t say that because I was too busy trying to get the damn thing to work in a way that was possible and looked good to me, given all the stuff I wanted to include.
Rinse and repeat with several more covers, and I began to notice something interesting. I loved and admired covers with subtle colour in misty, soft-focus. I loved complicated covers with big design elements superimposed over textural brushes so the picture looked aged and painted-over and intricate. In short, I loved covers like this:
or this 
But when I made cover art myself I consistently went for as few design elements as possible, choosing to make them as bold as I could. I went for hard-edged lines, sharp focus, strong colours, clarity and simplicity. This sort of thing:
or this 
and it dawned on me that without giving it a thought, I had achieved a recognisable style of my own. It’s peculiar and a little ironic that my style in no way resembles the things that I like. It’s odd that my own style came as a surprise to me. But it’s amazing and rather gratifying to find that I have one, and it came as a free gift with the process of just getting on with it.
Which is my conclusion, really. Don’t worry about finding your authorial voice. Just tell your stories in the only way you can get them to work, given the stuff you’ve chosen to put in them. Tell them in a way that pleases you, without worrying that other authors – even the ones that you love – do it differently. Do it your way, because you are you, so doing it your way is the only way for you to be authentic. Then, when you’ve done it for five books or so, your author’s voice will jump out and laugh at you and say “Stupid! You’ve had a voice all along. You write like this!” And it may be an odd surprise, but it should be a pleasant one, if only because it didn’t ever need to be a big deal.
To get the writing started again after the enforced break of Christmas, I found myself signing up at the PicFor1000 community on Livejournal. The idea of which is that they give you a picture, and you write a story of 1000 words inspired by that picture.
I was fortunate enough to get this http://www.flickr.com/photos/altamiranopics/4559939756/sizes/m/in/photostream/
which made me laugh. And then it made me wonder why I always laugh at colourfully presented shameless selfishness, when really it’s not funny at all. And that, by degrees of working its way through the obsession I’ve been entertaining for the last six months, became this story, which I thought I would share. Because what’s the point of writing a story at all, if no one gets to read it?
Bad Attitude
Read the rest of this entry »
Cor, the length of that title. Anyway, if you remember, I mentioned that Diesel ebooks was doing a special offer on By Honor Betrayed on 01/03/2012. Being British, I saw that date and thought “first of March? I’ll never remember to remind people that far off.” However, thanks to the lovely Jay Rookwood, I’ve been reminded that dates work differently in the US and that 01/03/2012 is actually the third of January there.
So, ten copies of By Honor Betrayed will be available at Diesel ebooks here http://www.diesel-ebooks.com/index.php?page=item&id=9781426892554 at the princely sum of 60c, starting from 11am EST. First come, first served.
In a miracle of good timing (I say a miracle because it certainly wasn’t planned) By Honor Betrayed has just had another wonderful review, this time from Lena at Queer Magazine Online: http://queermagazineonline.com/component/content/article/223-book-reviews/book-reviews/41683-by-honor-betrayed-by-alex-beecroft
“’By Honor Portrayed’ is an excellent, well written, exciting, passionate love story which I highly recommend to anyone who believes as Conrad does, that love is the most important thing in the world and that life without the one you love is not worth living.”
This is a really good way to start the new year 😀 Thanks, Lena!
I don’t know that I ever posted about seeing Sherlock Holmes: A Game of Shadows just before Christmas. I ranted about it on Yahoo groups instead. Basically I thought it was fun, with some lovely explosions and much to recommend it to lovers of big guns, but I felt it would have been much improved if it hadn’t been sold as Sherlock Holmes, because they have taken away almost everything that makes Holmes Holmes and Watson Watson.
I should hurry to clarify that it’s not that I don’t believe Holmes and Watson could handle themselves in a fight. Of course they could. Holmes bending a fire-poker into a circle as a demonstration of strength is one of the lasting impressions I have of the stories, and I remember that he was trained in some (possibly made up) form of martial arts. But he rarely had to use either of these things, because the stories were about his ability to solve crimes by intelligence, observation and the deductive method. None of which was really in evidence in the film.
It’s not so much the overwhelming action-heroness that makes me feel film!Holmes is OOC, though. It’s mainly that book!Holmes was neither a slob nor a flirt. Possibly film!Holmes is both of these in order to appear manly for an American audience which is already inclined to find Englishmen effeminate. But if that’s so you wouldn’t expect the film makers to then put him into a dress.
Or perhaps they only felt they could get away with putting him into a dress if it was played for laughs? I have to say that I found the whole “LOL! Holmes is in a dress and he and Watson look like they’re having sex in a train carriage, the fangirls will love this!” episode acutely annoying. For crying out loud, this is 2012. Subtext that you then go out of your way to disprove is no longer daring. You want to suggest they might be gay, go ahead and actually make it text. Deal with it like it’s a real thing and not a joke. Otherwise you look like you’re sniggering behind your hand at something that isn’t funny. Why is a man in a dress funny? Why is it a joke that Holmes and Watson could actually be a couple? It isn’t, and it annoys me no end to see it treated that way.
The film also pissed me off in the matter of Irene Adler. I didn’t like the fact that she was made out to be (a) Holmes’ girlfriend and (b) a damsel in distress in the first film, but I didn’t like even more her being treated as disposable in the second film and replaceable by another typical, cloned spunky female sidekick. She was special, damn it. A Victorian author wrote her as a female character who out-clevered Sherlock Holmes and who Holmes admired and maybe even revered for her brain. How is it that a Victorian author can have more respect for his female characters than a modern film maker? That’s rather sad.
TL/DR – I enjoyed the film as a semi-steampunk romp with original characters, but disliked it intensely as a representation of Sherlock Holmes.
Fortunately, my ruffled feathers were almost immediately soothed by the new series of the BBC’s Sherlock.
I’d been worried about this, because I’d been told that they were doing Irene Adler as well, and teaser trailers had been seen that implied she and Sherlock were in some kind of sexual relationship. I should come clean and say that I have always, always seen Sherlock Holmes as someone who was simply not interested in sex at all. My position on the “is he with Watson, or is he with Irene Adler” question is “No.” And that’s always been very important to me (possibly for reasons related to my “things I realised during 2011” post.) In my mind, if done right, Sherlock Holmes is not a sexual being, and I was all prepared to be sad and disappointed by this episode if they had dropped the ball and decided that he couldn’t be a real man without shagging someone.
But they didn’t, thank God. Instead they did an almost perfect blend of genuine intellectual fascination, a tiny bit of maybe, possibly romantic interest and a great deal of the same thing he did when he met Watson – showing off in order to dazzle an appreciative audience. Of course she fascinates and attracts him on a mental level, so does Moriarty – they’re dangerous and clever and a fun challenge, and they stop him getting bored.
I didn’t particularly like her being in love with him. Canonically, she’s deeply in love with someone else when they meet. Which is only sensible, because Holmes is not the right kind of person to be in love with. (Poor Molly from the hospital. But on the other hand, grow some self-respect, girl, and stop setting yourself up for this.) OTOH, Irene Adler is a sexual being and Sherlock’s got all the same qualities of intellectual fascination and is quite attractive, so I don’t mind that too much. (But what? Didn’t she say she was gay? Does that mean we’re supposed to accept that he’s just so gorgeous that even lesbians fall for him? Hm… I don’t see it, myself.)
I loved Irene Adler as a character – I thought the dominatrix thing was a good way to update the whole element of sexual scandal (because, like it or not, if a young female royal was found to be visiting a professional domme there would be a scandal, even nowadays.) She was such a powerful presence physically as well as mentally and it was lovely to see her make mincemeat of Sherlock both ways. She needs her own series.
I rather resented the fact that they changed the end to allow him to end up triumphing over and finally rescuing her. That didn’t happen in the book. (See above about Victorian authors and sad things.)
I also really loved the perplexed reactions of everyone around Sherlock as they all tried to figure out how this relationship worked and what it meant, using models that just didn’t fit. In the story, Watson sounds puzzled and slightly disbelieving about the way Sherlock is not interested in women but nevertheless regards Irene as THE woman, and the same disconnect was wonderfully shown here.
Other things that made me squee – Sherlock’s reaction to Mrs. Hudson being manhandled by the CIA man. Defenestration was too good for him. Mrs. Hudson also continues to be unexpectedly awesome in a frail old lady way. The Flight of the Dead. Mycroft being all BAMF!big-brotherly. Sherlock in a sheet being infantile in return. That brief moment where Sherlock and Mycroft reassure each other that there’s nothing wrong with being cold bastards set slightly apart from the rest of the human race. Low Tar sympathy for short term relationships. John, who could have been overshadowed this episode, somehow managing to be even more awesome (and awesomely put-upon) than usual.
And I like the fact that everyone assumes John and Sherlock are a couple. Of course they do – they look like a couple, they behave like a couple, so naturally everyone assumes they are together. No sniggering or subtext required, even if it does exasperate John, who is blithely unaware that he’s in the closest thing Sherlock will ever have to an intimate relationship. (Though John’s newly-ex-girlfriend clearly knows the score.)
TL/DR – there were some things I wasn’t sure of, but on the whole it was delightful. Funny, insightful, clever and right. I can’t wait for the next episode.
I never quite saw the point of marking the passing of the year – after all, it’s only meaningless numbers on an arbitrary calendar, which could quite easily end or begin somewhere else. It’s not a real thing in the way that a solstice is a real thing – measurable and with observable consequences.
Now, however, I feel like I’m starting to get it. A change from one year to another is an opportunity to stop and take stock, to look back on what you’ve achieved and to decide what to stop doing, and what to do more of. An arbitrary change over it might be, but the chance to put down the old habits that aren’t working and turn in hope to new behaviours, that just might make a difference? That’s a valuable thing.
As usual, it’s taken me longer than anyone else to see the obvious, but having seen it, I feel quite good about it. So here are some things I’ve learned in 2011 and the resolutions that result.
The main thing I learned during 2011 was the value of persistence. Despite the occasional day of having a blow-out, I persisted in my diet and I lost weight. Despite the occasional day where I couldn’t practice, I practiced my whistle every day I could, and I learned how to play it. Despite the occasional week when I couldn’t write, I wrote every day that I could, and I finished 190K words.
So, my resolutions for 2012 are pretty much more of the same: Keep watching the weight, learn more tunes so I can play for the Riot as well as Coton, and write at least 200K words.
To the end of writing 200K words, I’ve signed up to the getyourwordsout community on LJ http://getyourwordsout.livejournal.com/profile
I subtracted the number of weeks in the year when I can expect the school holidays to interfere with my writing, and came up with 40 weeks in the year when I can hope to write. So to make 200,000 words, I need to write 5,000 words a week for all 40 of those weeks – which seems pretty manageable. But of course there will be weeks of illness and other stuff, so I think I will try to do 2000 words a day (10,000 words a week) when I can, and see how that turns out. I often get less time than I hope for, so I want to make sure I fill the time I do have as productively as possible.
I’ve been somewhat inspired (or challenged, maybe?) by Dean Wesley Smith’s blog to approach writing in a more business-like way. His recent posts on the value of not giving up have made a lot of sense in the light of 2011’s modest successes. So maybe, health permitting, my main resolution for 2012 is to work just that little bit harder, and to keep going. I feel like I’ve learned a useful lesson in 2011 and this year’s work is to turn it from a new insight into a habit. It’s way past time that I acquired a work ethic, after all 🙂
Good luck to all of you in your new, and continuing, endeavours!
Hee! I want to say that this is a good way to start the new year, but actually it’s more that it’s a good way to end the old one 🙂
with this lovely review from Jessewave’s blog:
If you are looking for a lovely historical from a talented author, look no further than By Honor Betrayed.
Thank you ever so much to Aunt Lynn!
And speaking of which, I have just had an email from Diesel ebooks saying that they are featuring By Honor Betrayed as their Deal of the Day on 01/03/2012. I will try mightily to remember to remind everyone of that a bit closer to the time, but I suspect I may not manage it.
I wasn’t really familiar with Diesel ebooks before this, but their site looks interesting, and I would be glad for an alternative to Amazon. They also pay you for submitting reviews, which sounds like a bargain 🙂
I have emerged from Christmas, and yet I still don’t feel as if it actually happened this year. It’s an odd feeling, comparable to going through some frightening initiation rite and coming out the other side completely unchanged. Something ought to have happened, but it didn’t.
One of the things that didn’t happen was a blazing family row, so that’s a plus. I also got a wonderful haul of presents including a new tuneable whistle in the key of D. (My previous one was untuneable, which meant that everyone else had to adjust their expensive, complicated instruments to sound nice with my simple cheap one. Now I can adjust my, still relatively cheap and easy to adjust, whistle instead and much annoyance is spared for everyone.)
This close to the end of the year, with nothing much due to happen between now and the beginning of 2012 it seems like a good time to look back on 2011 and get an overview of what that year was all about.
Read the rest of this entry »
The historical gay romance review site, Speak Its Name is doing its awards competition at the moment.
I understand that all books which received 4-5 star reviews are entrants.
Erastes says They are quite simple: Best book, best cover, best
author. I'd like to add a "Reader's Choice" for the readers favourite
novels so I've compiled a list of 4, 4½ and 5 star novels from the Blog.
There aren't that many, considering how many reviews we did.
Here's the poll - PLEASE PASS THIS ALONG, tweet, facebook, blogit, etc.
http://erastes.livejournal.com/710444.html
*By Honor Betrayed by Alex
Beecroft <http://speakitsname.com/2011/11/16/review-by-honor-betrayed-by-alex-beecroft/>
*
*The Lilac Tree by Marion Husband (short
story)<http://speakitsname.com/2011/10/10/review-the-lilac-tree-by-marion-husband-short-story/>
*
*Captain Harding’s Six Day War by Elliott
Mackle<http://speakitsname.com/2011/09/20/review-captain-hardings-six-day-war-by-elliott-mackle/>
*
*If It Ain’t Love by Tamara Allen (short
story)<http://speakitsname.com/2011/09/17/review-if-it-aint-love-by-tamara-allen-short-story/>
*
*Well Traveled by Margaret Mills and Tedy
Ward<http://speakitsname.com/2011/09/15/review-well-traveled-by-margaret-mills-and-tedy-ward/>
*
*Placing Out by P.A.
Brown<http://speakitsname.com/2011/09/11/review-placing-out-by-p-a-brown/>
*
*Violet Thunder by Kate
Cotoner<http://speakitsname.com/2011/08/19/review-violet-thunder-by-kate-cotoner/>
*
*This Rough Magic by Josh
Lanyon<http://speakitsname.com/2011/07/10/review-this-rough-magic-by-josh-lanyon/>
*
*Muffled Drum by
Erastes<http://speakitsname.com/2011/07/07/review-muffled-drum-by-erastes/>
*
*The Puppet Master by Kate
Cotoner<http://speakitsname.com/2011/06/09/review-the-puppet-master-by-kate-cotoner/>
*
*Kindred Hearts by G.S.
Wiley<http://speakitsname.com/2011/05/28/review-kindred-hearts-by-g-s-wiley-2/>
*
*The Affair of the Porcelain Dog by Jess
Faraday<http://speakitsname.com/2011/05/20/review-the-affair-of-the-porcelain-dog-by-jess-faraday/>
*
*Wingmen by Ensan
Case<http://speakitsname.com/2011/05/08/review-wingmen-by-ensan-case/>
*
*Bound Forever by Ava
March<http://speakitsname.com/2011/04/13/review-bound-forever-by-ava-march/>
*
*Missouri by Christine
Wunnicke<http://speakitsname.com/2011/03/06/review-missouri-by-christine-wunnicke/>
*
*Suffer the Little Children by Tracy
Rowan<http://speakitsname.com/2011/02/16/review-suffer-the-little-children-by-tracy-rowan/>
*
*Eromenos by Melanie
McDonald<http://speakitsname.com/2011/02/14/review-eromenos-by-melanie-mcdonald/>
*
*Under the Poppy by Kathe
Koja<http://speakitsname.com/2011/02/12/review-under-the-poppy-by-kathe-koja/>
*
*Home is the Sailor by Lee
Rowan<http://speakitsname.com/2011/02/10/review-home-is-the-sailor-by-lee-rowan/>
*
*Sal Mineo: a biography by Michael Gregg
Michaud<http://speakitsname.com/2011/01/24/review-sal-mineo-a-biography-by-michael-gregg-michaud/>
*
*The Nobleman and the Spy by Bonnie Dee and Summer
Devon<http://speakitsname.com/2011/01/20/review-the-nobleman-and-the-spy-by-summer-dee-and-bonnie-devon/>
*
*Midnight Dude by
Various<http://speakitsname.com/2011/10/06/review-midnight-dude-by-various/>
*
*Beloved Pilgrim by Nan
Hawthorne<http://speakitsname.com/2011/10/02/review-beloved-pilgrim-by-nan-hawthorne/>
*
*Earth and Sun, Cedar and Sage by Margaret Mills and Tedy
Ward<http://speakitsname.com/2011/09/22/review-earth-and-sun-cedar-and-sage-by-margaret-mills-and-tedy-ward/>
*
*Kindred Hearts by Rowan
Speedwell<http://speakitsname.com/2011/09/07/review-kindred-hearts-by-rowan-speedwell/>
*
*The Last Tallyho by Richard
Newhafer<http://speakitsname.com/2011/09/01/review-the-last-tallyho-by-richard-newhafer/>
*
*The Painting by FK
Wallace<http://speakitsname.com/2011/08/10/review-the-painting-by-fk-wallace/>
*
*Algerian Nights by Graeme
Roland<http://speakitsname.com/2011/07/03/review-algerian-nights-by-graeme-roland/>
*
*Game of Chance by Kate
Roman<http://speakitsname.com/2011/06/20/review-game-of-chance-by-kate-roman/>
*
*Willing Flesh by J S Cook (Inspector Raft Mysteries
#1)<http://speakitsname.com/2011/06/11/review-willing-flesh-by-j-s-cook-inspector-raft-mysteries-1/>
*
*Perfect Score by Susan
Roebuck<http://speakitsname.com/2011/05/18/review-perfect-score-by-susan-roebuck/>
*
*Dulce et Decorum Est by JL
Merrow<http://speakitsname.com/2011/05/12/review-dulce-et-decorum-est-by-jl-merrow/>
*
*Mere Mortals by
Erastes<http://speakitsname.com/2011/05/04/review-mere-mortals-by-erastes/>
*
*Lion of Kent by Aleksandr Voinov and Kate
Cotoner<http://speakitsname.com/2011/05/02/review-lion-of-kent-by-aleksandr-voinov-and-kate-cotoner/>
*
*Young Man in Paris by Sophia
Deri-Bowen<http://speakitsname.com/2011/04/20/review-young-man-in-paris-by-sophia-deri-bowen/>
*
*Raised by Wolves 2 Matelots by WA
Hoffman<http://speakitsname.com/2011/04/18/3294/>
*
*The Wanderer by Jan
Irving<http://speakitsname.com/2011/04/11/review-the-wanderer-by-jan-irving/>
*
*Arson! The Dakota Series 1 by Cap
Iversen<http://speakitsname.com/2011/03/12/review-arson-the-dakota-series-1-by-cap-iversen/>
*
*Living the Spirit: a Gay American Indian Anthology, compiled by Gay
American Indians, Will
Roscoe<http://speakitsname.com/2011/03/02/review-living-the-spirit-a-gay-american-indian-anthology-compiled-by-gay-american-indians-will-roscoe/>
*
*Precious Jade by Fyn Alexander <http://speakitsname.com/2011/02/24/3101/>*
*Sam’s Hill by Jack
Ricardo<http://speakitsname.com/2011/02/18/review-sams-hill-by-jack-ricardo/>
*
*Home Station on the Prairie Series-1 and 2 by Kara
Larson<http://speakitsname.com/2011/02/02/review-home-station-on-the-prairie-series-1-and-2-by-kara-larson/>
*
*Walking in Two Worlds by Terry
O’Reilly<http://speakitsname.com/2011/01/28/review-walking-in-two-worlds-by-terry-o%e2%80%99reilly/>
*
*Comstock by Aaron
Michaels<http://speakitsname.com/2011/01/05/review-comstock-by-aaron-michaels/>
*
*Home Fires Burning by Charlie
Cochrane<http://speakitsname.com/2011/11/11/review-home-fires-burning-by-charlie-cochrane/>
*
*Pioneers by Lynn
Lorenz<http://speakitsname.com/2011/08/22/review-pioneers-by-lynn-lorenz/>
*
*Giovanni’s Room by James
Baldwin<http://speakitsname.com/2011/08/02/review-giovannis-room-by-james-baldwin/>
*
*A Faint Wash of Lavender by Lucius
Parhelion<http://speakitsname.com/2011/06/27/review-a-faint-wash-of-lavender-by-lucius-parhelion/>
*
*Silver-Silver Lining by Lucius
Parhelion<http://speakitsname.com/2011/06/07/review-silver-silver-lining-by-lucius-parhelion/>
*
*The Soldier of Raetia: Valerian’s Legion by Heather
Domin<http://speakitsname.com/2011/05/26/review-the-soldier-of-raetia-valerian%e2%80%99s-legion-by-heather-domin/>
*
*The Only Gold by Tamara
Allen<http://speakitsname.com/2011/05/16/review-the-only-gold-by-tamara-allen/>
*
*House of Mirrors by Bonnie Dee and Summer
Devon<http://speakitsname.com/2011/05/14/review-house-of-mirrors-by-bonnie-dee-and-summer-devon/>
*
*Icy Pavements by Lee
Wyndham<http://speakitsname.com/2011/04/08/review-icy-pavements-by-lee-wyndham/>
*
*According to Hoyle by Abigail
Roux<http://speakitsname.com/2011/03/24/review-according-to-hoyle-by-abigail-roux/>
*
*All Lessons Learned by Charlie
Cochrane<http://speakitsname.com/2011/03/15/review-all-lessons-learned-by-charlie-cochrane/>
*
*The Evening Crowd at Kirmser’s by Ricardo J.
Brown<http://speakitsname.com/2011/02/26/review-the-evening-crowd-at-kirmsers-by-ricardo-j-brown/>
*
*His Client by Ava
March <http://speakitsname.com/2011/02/04/review-his-client-by-ava-march/>
*
*The Praise Singer by Mary
Renault <http://speakitsname.com/2011/01/07/review-the-praise-singer-by-mary-renault/>
*
Gosh, my titles are imaginative, aren’t they? But I got the final version of my cover art for Under the Hill: Dogfighters last night and had logged on to post it for people to see, when I came across the Hobbit trailer. That made two things to squee about instead of just one, so here they both are together, unconnected except by my enthusiasm.
Look! I have a dragon! And a Mosquito bomber, and mehndi, and countryside that looks like it really is the Peak District, and a model I can easily picture as Ben – he has just the perfect attitude. So cool! I can’t wait to get both this and Bomber’s Moon in paperback. They’re going to be such handsome books 🙂
~
As for the Hobbit trailer
I’m loving all of it except for the completely random Galadriel/Gandalf shipping. What?! As someone who spent three years writing Celeborn/Galadriel fanfic, my feathers are mightily ruffled. Why must everyone in the world disregard my favourite elf?
Apart from that, I loved the Dwarvish plainsong, and I particularly love “Can you promise that I will come back?” “No.”
So, on the whole I’m guessing it’ll be like the other films – mostly excellent, but with some bits inserted that make me tear my hair out. I wonder which part will outweigh which.
or this 
or this 
