Avoiding cliches is the biggest cliche of all

It should be pretty obvious really, shouldn't it? Everybody knows that we should avoid cliches like something that isn't the plague (but is still really bad).

Just last week, I was reading another one of those blog post tips for writers thingees that was going on about all those cliches you should make sure you avoid. And this one even came from an agent.

Yes, yes, I've heard it all before. Cliches are boring. They're lazy writing and they devalue your story. We've heard them all before, yada yada yada.

You know what  I think. I think that constantly being told to avoid cliches is becoming more boring than the cliches themselves. I think avoiding cliches is the biggest cliche of all.

When you look at what is up there on the bestseller lists, you see how much of a lie the avoiding cliche thing is. What's the first thing you usually see? More of the same. Volume 27 of this series of volume 238 of that series. More of the same of the same of the same. It's pretty obvious if you ask me. We're not bored by repetition. We love it. We embrace it. We're all constantly crying out for more of the same, more of those good old cliches.

And I think this is especially rich coming from an agent. From where I'm sitting, they're the ones helping to perpetuate this whole repetition thing. In their position as gatekeepers for the industry, they're the ones who have a big say in what gets through and what doesn't.

Funny thing is, when you actually try to push something that does things a different way, and tries to strive for something that avoids those cliches, what do you get. "Oh dear, this is a bit hard to categorise," or, "This is going to be a bit difficult to find a market for." I know. I'm one of those shmucks who actually took the avoiding cliches thing seriously and tried to do something a bit different.

At this point, I suspect it's all a bit of a lost cause. And besides, I've pretty much decided that writing a cliche free story is nigh on impossible. Because, as I look more closely at that list of cliches we should all be avoiding, the main thing I can see is that there actually isn't much left. By the time I get through expunging all of those cliches, I don't think there's anything left I can actually write.

So I say embrace the cliche. Enjoy it for what it is - a mechanism that allows your reader to place your story, and make some sense out of what it is.

That's enough of my rant for this week. Here's one final cliche to finish off with - hope you have a great week. 

Here tomorrow, gone today

I'm pleased. I managed to come up with a nifty title for my blog today.

I'm even more pleased. I have a little bit of an idea of what I might actually write about.

It's something I've seen mentioned over and over in the world of independent publishing: it's a marathon, not a sprint. That's all very well, but sometimes I wonder how long the race is meant to last. 

I have to admit, I'm quite partial to sprinting. I'm actually a pretty quick runner. Or at least I was, back in my younger days. To be honest, I couldn't tell you the last time I broke into a serious run (although recently I have had a few races to try and catch a tram, and I can tell you I was seriously pooped afterwards).

But I understand the whole marathon vs sprint thing. We can't expect to be overnight successes. It takes a lot of time and work (and most likely luck) to get yourself to the pinnacle of writing success. The question I have is, how long is that marathon meant to last?

It seems that for some people, the marathon is substantially longer than for others.  Take as examples some of my favourite writers. Douglas Adams is a good case in point. When Hitch-hikers guide came out, he seemed to become a big writing star out of the blue. But if you look closely at the biography on his book blurbs, and all the different jobs he had done, you realise that it didn't just happen overnight. There was more than a bit of work before it finally did.

Another case is Kafka. On the surface, not much like Adams, though both did find different ways to write about the absurd. Kafka didn't get famous during his (short) lifespan. It was only after his death that a friend published the manuscripts (after being told to destroy them). Now, of course, they're recognised as true classics.

I guess what this is saying is there are marathons and marathons. Some have an end point that is further away than others. And if you know anything about the origins of the word, you know that Pheidippides, the original marathon runner, dropped dead as soon as he had completed his great run.

I don't want that to be me. I'm more than happy to do the hard yards, and I like the idea of producing something with lasting worth. But I also want to make it to the finish line - and last a bit longer after that too. I don't want to be here tomorrow, gone today.

Hope you all have a good run too. 

Excitement and adventure from the very beginning

This is a really great and exciting opening sentence that will grab your attention straight away and make you want to read the rest of this post.

Well, maybe not, but I thought I might try it anyway.

I've been reading blog posts about opening sentences. I know, I shouldn't be doing it. I'm so opinionated as it is, all that's going to happen is I'm going to get all hot under the collar about other people telling me what to write and how to write. If I want to start my stories in a way that someone else doesn't think stories should be started, that's totally my business.

Once I got over that, I did have a bit of a think about it (I know, that's not always a good idea either). As it is, I reckon the opening sentences in my books are actually not too bad. So what if the opening to my fantasy story is pretty much exactly how I was told not to start a fantasy story. And if my detective story opens in a way that I'm told a detective story should never open. I can live with that, because that's just the kind of person I am.

So I really wasn't too concerned about changing the opening sentences for my stories. But what I was concerned about was my blog. Maybe one of the reasons I always seem to get bugger all hits on my blog is because my opening sentences are crap. Maybe it's time to reassess my approach to how I start up each of these posts.

Obviously, I need to cut to the chase, get straight into the serious blog action, and not beat around the bush with my usual form of bloggy blah. No more meandering along with sentences like "It's a lovely sunny day as I sit at my computer, looking out the window at a flock of birds effortlessly dancing through the air in tight formation" or "I sit at my desk, a tall, slim man with black-brown hair and a drawn expression on my face as I try to force my brain into action". Oh no, we're going clean and mean and no messing around.

Mind you, I seem to have hit a problem right away. Get straight into the action? What sort of action am I talking about? I'm beginning to get a feeling that it isn't just the beginnings that are a problem for my blog - I suspect the middles are also a bit of an issue. And also, given that I have no idea what this is actually leading to, I think I may have a problem with endings as well.

Um...er...thanks for coming. See you next week.

 

I've resorted to posting up recipes

Once again I have my friend Jim Murdoch to thank for this post.

Regular readers of this site (assuming they exist - maybe I should be referring to those who accidentally pop their head in when they're on their way somewhere else) would know about the travails I regular post about, describing how difficult it is to think of new topics to write about each week. How do you say something new and interesting that hasn't been said before? Or, given the near impossibility of the previous sentence, how do you rewrite something for the millionth time in such a way that it looks like it's new and interesting and hasn't been said before?

Luckily, Jim gave me a great idea, which has at least solved my problem for another week. Today I'm going to post up a recipe.

Now to think about what might be a good one to put up here. I used to do a lot of cooking. Hey, I even thought I was rather good at it. At least within the fairly narrow parameters I set for myself which was basically 'do I like this?'. So maybe I wasn't likely to last too long if I tried out for one of those cooking shows, which suited me fine 'cos I don't love those cooking shows at all. And maybe I wasn't inviting too many friends over for dinner parties - which also suited me fine as dinner parties always seem to be way more bother than they're worth. But, as far as I was concerned, I was cooking up a storm most nights, and keeping the most important person in my life happy and well fed.

These days, I don't cook all that often. I  have to admit I've gotten kind of lazy. Which means that thinking up a recipe to post on my site is more than a little tricky.

Hang on, I've got an idea. I might not do a lot of cooking, but one thing I definitely do a lot of is writing. Maybe I could post up some sort of recipe related to writing instead. A list of all the ingredients you need and the techniques to use to create your own story. So here goes:

Ingredients

1. An idea
2. Some characters
3. A setting
4. A plot (don't worry too much about this one - it usually comes out in the cooking).

Method

1. Get writing
2. Write some more
3. Keep writing.

There you go. My first ever recipe. Follow it closely and you will have your very own story. Actually, even if you don't follow it that closely, there's a good chance you'll end up with a story. That's the beauty of it.

Have a great week.

I'm not me

Okay, so that's not strictly true. I guess, technically speaking, I am me.

But when it comes to putting up these posts, I always feel that I'm a little bit...I wouldn't quite say a fraud, but I wouldn't say it's totally me.

The problem goes back a bit. I've never been one for talking about myself. When I used to read those columns you see in newspapers and  magazines where so-called celebrities blab on about nothing much in particular except themselves, I always thought that I could never do that. To be honest, I thought you'd have to be pretty up-yourself to even manage it.

I thought the same about blogging. Why would I want to have a blog? Why would I want to talk about myself? Who would be interested in reading it anyway?

Then I became a published writer. Of course, being the captain clueless I usually am, I hadn't put any thought into what I might need to do to actually get people to buy my book. So I was in catch-up mode pretty quick. And what was one of the first pieces of advice I saw pretty much everywhere?

You've got to have a blog.

Holy crap! How am I supposed to do that? What am I supposed to say? Am I going to have to become one of those people going on and on about themselves that I had so heartily despised?

I guess the answer is yes and no. Here I am, on my blog, and I suspect I'm rabbiting on about myself as much as any of those so-called celebrity columnists. But I still don't quite feel the same. I kind of feel that the me I'm rabbiting on about isn't quite the real me. It's just a pretend sort of me that I make up on the spot. At least that's what I tell myself. Maybe that's what all those other bloggers and celebrities tell themselves to.

Anyway, that's about it for now. So what are you doing? Can't you find something more useful to do than reading a bunch of blathering about a person who may not even be me? Go outside. Get some sun.

Have a great weekend. 

Orange Karen: Tribute to a Warrior

Today is one of those days when I'm glad to be talking about something bigger than just me and my writing.

A few years ago, after I'd released my first book, I was flailing around on twitter with no idea what I was doing. By a stroke of luck, I chanced upon a group of writers chatting away using the tag #pubwrite. They seemed to be having a lot of fun and sharing a lot of useful information so I kind of snuck in there as well.

Luckily, it turned out to be a friendly and welcoming group who made me, an infrequent visitor from the other side of the world, feel quite at home. In some ways, it was the first step for me in gaining a bit of confidence in the online world.

Time moved on. The #pubwrite conversation wound up as it, like many worthwhile things on the internet, became overwhelmed with spam. With my busy schedule, I kind of lost touch with a lot of the people.

It was with some sadness that I heard that one of the original members of the group, Karen DeLabar, had been unwell. When I discovered not long after that a number of her friends were putting together an anthology to help her with her medical expenses, it was something I felt I had to contribute to, even in a small way.

The result of lots of hard work, Orange Karen: Tribute to a Warrior, has just been released. I'm pleased that I managed to get a story in there, even a somewhat small and silly one, nestled among the work of a lot of terrific writers. Ultimately, what this shows is what can be achieved when a group of people come together to help one of their own, so I'd like to pay tribute to everyone involved with this. I'm proud to be even a small part of it.

You can purchase a copy of the anthology from:

• Amazon
• Createspace

There's a lot of great reading here, and you'll be supporting a great person.

Enjoy. 

Gift one, get one

Ok, today I'm in promo mode.

But I don't just want to look like I'm pushing my own book. So that's why today I'm talking about a really cool event being put on by a friend.

Gift one, get one is a promotion set up by Thomas A. Knight, the author of The Time Weaver, in order to mark the occasion of his birthday. You can find the details at his website - http://thomasaknight.com/blog.php?id=88.

The premise is simple:

• Buy a copy of one of the participating books as a gift for someone else: there are 12 books contributed by 6 different writers.
• Forward your receipt from Amazon to Thomas, as well as a selection from the list of 12 books.
• A free copy of the selected book will be forwarded to you.

 Simple. Fun.

 

This event will be running from April 4-10. Did I happen to mention that Magnus Opum is one of the participating books?

 

So what are you waiting for? Go to http://thomasaknight.com/blog.php?id=88 and join in the fun now.