There's a terrific feature for would-be-writers in today's Guardian Review, put together by Jim Crace who has clearly cracked after being asked the same questions about process, too many times. It's jaded but witty and the observations are helpful and accurate if you're so minded:-) Shyama

It was his speech at the Norwich Writing Partnership I went to and he caused a bit of a furore with it. I heard people say he was being spiteful. Really he is being honest and mischeivious.

Yep, nice one Shyama, and
here's the link to the Books homepage- just click on his article.


here's the link to the article direct:

http://books.guardian.co.uk/review/story/0,12084,1405386,00.html

[Edited by david bruce at 21:30:00 on 05 February 2005
Reason: added url]

Excellent, I really enjoyed that - thanks for posting, Shyama.

Thanks for that Shyama. I still don't understand this "rule" about not having the MC's name in the first line. Can someone please explain to me why this is such a big no no? Saul Bellow does it all the time.

Adele.

Crace was being sarcastic about 'rules'

Thanks Jai. That wasn't clear to me from reading the piece. It's good to know that someone as successful as him things this kind of box-ticking so often misses the point of what makes interesting work that readers will enjoy.

<Added>

things should be thinks - time to wake up!

I think what's also important in the piece are the points about having confidence in what you're writing, about not being afraid to rewrite, and that ultimately no matter how many friends have told you what you're doing is great, what's important is getting it out to agents and editors. All very scary stuff, but the main route of progression. It's also good to know, isn't it, that there are a zillion others out there suffering the same anxieties and moments of madness:-)

Great article.

Think I'll probably start my novel on Monday!

Thought the article was boring and tedious myself but different strokes for different folks I guess.

Adele, the rule about having the MCs name in the first line is one that I've raised before. At least to me it smacks of dull generic thoughtless writing. Still, there are countless novels out there in which this occurs and I have to admit some of them are bloody good reads. I guess it's just one of those things to be avoided liking it to always using 'I' instead of trying to submerge it.

Geoff

Geoff, hey, guess what? I have my MC's name in line one of my novel. I took it out for about ten minutes on Sunday after reading the Crace article, but on hearing Jai's reply, reinstated in its rightful place. My agent has not problem with it. But if I can't find a publisher, feel free to say "I told you so"...

Adele.

Ok, ok!!! Don't rub it in!

How's the search for a publisher going at the moment? How exactly does that work, is it similar to submitting to an agent or does your agent have publishers s/he prefers to deal with?

Geoff

Geoff, as to how it all works, your guess is as good as mine. I leave all that to the pro.

Goodnight.

Adele.