I think every writer gets his start as a reader. If you don't enjoy reading, how could you possibly come to be a writer? Anyway, one of the writers whose work I enjoy is the late Stieg Larsson. I'm hoping to borrow an English edition of The Girl Who Kicked the Hornet's Nest to take with me on my upcoming research trip.The interesting thing about Larsson's stories to me is that I only knew clichés about Sweden: small relatively homogenous population, politically neutral, protested the Vietnam war, stuff like that.
I didn't know they had Nazis, biker gangs, corrupt business bigshots and lots of misogynistic men. The whole panorama of Swedish life as Larsson paints it is an eye opener. Familiar in some ways as a Western culture but full of surprises.
Makes me hope that the story I'm writing will be a fresh idea to a lot of people. Aside from the joy I take in doing my work, there's also the pleasure of hearing things like, "I read your book all the way from Honolulu to Chicago." Or, "Your book caused me to miss a meeting." Comments like that make a writer's day.
Throw in a reasonable chunk of money and who could ask for more.
Today, I wrote six pages. All the story lines are picking up speed. The protagonist picked up a clue on tracking down the sexual predator from an unexpected source.
Day 51 of writing my new novel is done.
Showing posts with label Stieg Larsson. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Stieg Larsson. Show all posts
Tuesday, May 18, 2010
Sunday, May 2, 2010
Day 35, May 2, 2010
Today's writing continued the subject I began yesterday: filling in the background of three antagonists. Yesterday, I commented on the placement of such material in the arc of the storyline. I believe it should fall somewhere in the middle of the story at a point dictated by the development of the plot. In other words, there should be story logic as to where this type of material is placed.
The question I faced today is how long should such biographical information continue? Yesterday, I wrote five-plus pages and today I did the same, and tomorrow I'll do probably a couple more. That's thirteen pages on one facet of the story. Far more than I'd devote to an average scene. But, to be fair, the material is divided into a number of scenes.
Still, how long can you let other characters cool their heels. The answer, I think, is for as long as the background stuff is interesting and contributing essential information to the story, i.e. furthering the reader's understanding of what's going on.
The popular lit superstar of the moment is the late, great Stieg Larsson. In his second Millennium novel, he has the reader cruising along with his fearless heroine Lisbeth Salander from the start of the book and well into it. Then he has Lisbeth take a powder for a very long time. Even the other characters in the story wonder what the heck has happened to her. Of course, there are different rules for every writer (as to what a publisher will accept), and were Larsson still alive, there would be precious few restrictions on him.
Thing is, though, he put Lisbeth on the shelf for a good chunk of his book and got it published before he was famous.
My takeaway from that is to keep the parts of your story that you like and take your chances.
Day 35 of writing my new novel is done.
The question I faced today is how long should such biographical information continue? Yesterday, I wrote five-plus pages and today I did the same, and tomorrow I'll do probably a couple more. That's thirteen pages on one facet of the story. Far more than I'd devote to an average scene. But, to be fair, the material is divided into a number of scenes.
Still, how long can you let other characters cool their heels. The answer, I think, is for as long as the background stuff is interesting and contributing essential information to the story, i.e. furthering the reader's understanding of what's going on.
The popular lit superstar of the moment is the late, great Stieg Larsson. In his second Millennium novel, he has the reader cruising along with his fearless heroine Lisbeth Salander from the start of the book and well into it. Then he has Lisbeth take a powder for a very long time. Even the other characters in the story wonder what the heck has happened to her. Of course, there are different rules for every writer (as to what a publisher will accept), and were Larsson still alive, there would be precious few restrictions on him.
Thing is, though, he put Lisbeth on the shelf for a good chunk of his book and got it published before he was famous.
My takeaway from that is to keep the parts of your story that you like and take your chances.
Day 35 of writing my new novel is done.
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)
