Writing Tips

In fact, after a few days of tearing my hair out and wondering how the hell I was going to do what was asked of me, the old excitement returned, as the ideas started to flow.
The book will be better by the time I hand it back, and I will feel even more satisfied with my effort, and my editor will get the credit she deserves.

The fact is, whether you are traditionally published, or independently published, a seasoned writer of decades experience, or a nervous debut, a professional editor is essential, and you will not convince me otherwise.
I don’t get to choose my editor, they are assigned by my publisher, but I have been extremely fortunate over the years. Every suggestion that she has made has been thoughtful and smart. That doesn’t mean I will be implementing them all. In fact, the accompanying editorial letter acknowledges that – for narrative reasons – it would be impossible to follow them all, because some would essentially contradict each other, or make things too complicated. Rather, I have been given food for thought and a series of choices. How I use them is up to me; ultimately, it is my name on the cover.
So back to the book I am reading. I have enjoyed this author’s writing for many years, but a few books back, I felt they started to dip. The reasons are many, but primarily there is too much backstory with numerous characters that have over-stayed their welcome. The books have become more of a soap opera with a couple of very cool ideas thrown in to justify them being crime thrillers. The author is writing to their target audience now; those fans who will pick up the next in the series without even thinking about it. And I think it’s a real shame, because they’ve lost something special.

It feels arrogant of me to pretend I can critique someone who was selling more copies a week than I sell in a year, two decades before I even completed my first novel. Yet perhaps that is the problem. I suspect that somewhere along the line, they became “too big to edit”.
The latest novel is a case in point. It is basically a short story stretched to fill 400 pages. The first 100 pages are essentially about the lead character’s woes. We don’t even find out there has been a death. The next 200 pages (genuinely, I’m not exaggerating) are at the crime scene.
Now I love a bit of backstory – it’s why I enjoy a series. The prose is also extremely good; this is a very experienced writer with a confident and assured writing style and a strong voice. But I know, without a shadow of a doubt, that had I submitted something similar, my editor would have immediately sent it back.  The editorial letter would have been encouraging, kind and professional, but would essentially have said thus: Too slow. Cut the first 60 pages. Bring the death forward. Get them to the morgue before page 75. Do we need all these characters? Who are persons X,Y and Z and why do we care about them? We get that these characters have a complicated history, but you don’t need to keep on telling us. Cut back on the technical detail, it’s not a manual. Can you introduces some more tension, it’s too slow burn? etc etc.
And perhaps that’s why I’m not a multi-millionaire and they are?
But, despite that I still can’t help think that the book would have benefitted from a damn good edit. The sad thing is that I probably won’t read anything more by this writer;  they peaked several books ago and now they are just a cash cow. And that’s a real shame.
What are your thoughts on the editing process?
As always, feel free to share here or on social media.
Best wishes,
Paul

Much of the film industry is still run by male directors and cinematographers and all too often, this is reflected in the choice of shots and camera angles in these scenes. How many times have you seen a naked couple lying in bed, the bedsheets artfully concealing their lower bodies, but the female actor is topless, whilst her male counterpart is largely covered?
What about during sex scenes? There are sweeping camera shots of the female actor’s sweaty body, leaving little to the imagination, whilst her male colleague is barely shown. How many times have you seen a female actor showering or bathing in intimate, lingering detail, whilst (Hugh Jackman aside) there is barely a bare male bottom in sight?

In crime dramas, female murder victims are often lying naked on a mortuary table in the background, whilst the detectives discuss the case with the pathologist. Not only is this often gratuitous, it’s also unrealistic. Those who work within morgues, treat their patients with dignity. The body will be covered to preserve their modesty until it is necessary to remove the sheet to perform the autopsy, then they will be covered again.

Comic books are infamous for the way in which male superheroes wear sensible, practical costumes, whilst their female counterparts wear tight, gravity-defying bodices with their cleavage spilling out, and tiny miniskirts. I laughed out loud when, in a recent season of Supergirl, she was given a new version of the iconic suit and was delighted when it had trousers (pants) rather than her traditional red miniskirt!
A number of high-profile actors have become so fed up with what often feels like an unnecessary sop to male fantasies, that they will no longer perform intimate scenes unless they are directed by a female.

In literature, there exists the same phenomenon, almost exclusively in books written by male authors. Female characters are described in forensic detail, whilst all we know about our male is protagonist is that he has brown hair and dark eyes.
Many of the most egregious examples are shared on social media, and held up for ridicule. So if you don’t want your literary masterpiece being discussed by the Twitterati for all the wrong reasons, let’s look at how to avoid falling into these old habits.
(Note: I am going to assume that you aren’t specifically writing erotica, in which case the rules are obviously different).

Points to consider.
Women don’t, as a rule, frequently spend lengthy periods of time in front of a mirror considering their naked body.
And if, for strong narrative reasons, such a scene is necessary, there’s rarely any need to relate their inner monologue in intimate detail, for several paragraphs!
Less Is More.
This is a rule that is applicable to all manner of description, but especially important here. Is it really necessary to describe your female character’s breasts in such intimate detail? Do you absolutely have to spend ages devising graphic metaphors so that the reader knows exactly what their nipples look like?
Let The Reader’s Imagination Fill In The Details.
For example:
It was clear to see how the young woman had captured his attention. Tall and slim, her short skirt revealed smooth, toned legs, her lightly-tanned thighs soft like pillows. Her breasts were large, but not too large, barely constrained by her vest top, the indentations of her nipples revealing that she had neglected to wear a bra … Etc etc etc.
How about instead:
It was clear to see how the young woman had captured his attention. Tall and slim, in a short skirt, and a revealing top that left little to the onlooker’s imagination, she wouldn’t have looked out of place on a catwalk. 
I’m certainly not claiming any literary greatness for what I have just written, but rather than painting a picture in toe-curling, forensic detail, why not just give a few tantalising brushstrokes and let the reader do the work?
Are You Projecting Your Own Fantasies?
As writers, we often have a strong image in our mind’s eye of what our characters look like. But unless it’s directly relevant to the plot, be sparing with the detail. One of the reasons that books are so wonderfully immersive, is that whilst a great writer is able to conjure up a picture in their readers’ minds, the form that a character takes is ultimately determined by each individual reader. I have a clear image of what Harry Bosch looks like – and it isn’t anything like Titus Welliver who portrays him on screen. And it probably wouldn’t be recognisable to Michael Connelly or the millions of other readers of his books.
It’s also quite common for authors to  have one of their characters representing their ideal woman (or man). It’s generally harmless and part of the fun of being a writer. But I’d urge you not to spend a disproportionate amount of time describing that person. Keep a bit back for yourself!
Do Men And Women Get Equal Billing?
Go through your character descriptions with a critical eye. How many lines do you spend describing a male character? How many do you use to portray an equally important female character? Is there a big disparity? What about language? Think about the types of descriptors you use – are they factual (hair colour, height etc) or objective (voluptuous, pretty etc) – there’s nothing wrong with either, but are your male characters described in the same way as your female characters?
Ask An Expert!
It’s a generalisation, but if you are a male writer and aren’t sure if your male gaze is asserting itself, why not ask a woman for her opinion on your rough draft?

What are your thoughts on the male gaze? What about the female gaze – it surely exists, but is it as prevalent, or as awkward?

Feel free to comment here, or on social media.
Best wishes,
Paul.

And of course this is true. If I were to write characters that solely reflected my personal experiences, then for a start I wouldn’t be able to write detective stories. And my books would be entirely populated by lefty, white, cis males. I was once a young man and a child, so I could write about those characters (although I’d have to set them in the 80s and 90s – having never experienced life as a teenager in the social media era, I could hardly be considered an authority on many of the modern stresses experienced by today’s young people).
Because of this, there are those who immediately dismiss the very notion of cultural appropriation in stories as nonsense. Just another reason for people to get upset.
But that kind of misses the point. It seems to me, that what people object to is telling someone else’s story with authority and not acknowledging it. And what really upsets people is not putting the time in to do the research.

I will be the first to admit that in many ways, I have it easy. My central character, DCI Warren Jones, is a thinly-veiled version of myself. The stories that I tell are about Warren and the people he meets. These characters are basically seen through Warren’s eyes (and thus, by extension my own). I only need a broad appreciation of the stories and lived-experiences of these people, as the book’s perspective is from the outside looking in.
Where it gets tricky is when you start to write from the perspective of a character radically different to yourself, especially if that character is from a section of society less dominant to your own. For the purposes of clarity, I basically define that as they are less privileged than the writer in that situation. For example, that might be a white man trying to write from the perspective of a black female, when race or misogyny is an element of the story.

Of course, even in books written in my style, there are times when I need to look at the world through someone else’s eyes. I might have a chapter following DC Moray Ruskin, a gay Scotsman. Or Karen Hardwick, a young, single mother. If I transcribe their thoughts, feelings and emotions, rather than just their actions, then I need to put myself in their shoes. How does Moray Ruskin feel and react when interviewing someone who is openly homophobic? In those cases, I have to rely on empathy – can I empathise with their situation?
I personally don’t feel that I am able to sustain that level of empathy for an entire novel. Perhaps one day, but not yet.

But there are many exceptional writers who do manage it. There are many female writers who confidently write from the perspective of male characters and vice versa (although it should be pointed out that there are also some male writers who think that women spend hours in front of the mirror examining their body, and then relay their inner-monologue in the most toe-curling manner). For centuries, gay men have been forced to write about straight men, and I’ll bet we were never any the wiser. A lot of authors choose to conceal their gender behind their pen name – you’d be surprised how many writers of ‘chick lit’ or steamy, female-orientated romances are actually middle-aged men. I know several… I can also think of several thriller writers, whose books largely appeal to a ‘traditional male demographic’ who use initials or gender-neutral first names; many of their readers wouldn’t consider picking up a book by a woman, but will gravitate towards the guns and explosions on the cover and happily read them without ever realising who wrote it.
And let’s not forget that many non-white writers have been forced to write for a white audience to stand any chance of being published.
Many of these books haven’t aged well.
But many are still perfectly good reads today.

So how do they do it?
In my inexpert view, to write and not be accused of cultural appropriation you need to consider several things.
Empathy:
You need to know how these characters would feel and react in situations. This is important for all writers, but especially when you are colouring outside the lines, so to speak. So read about these characters. Watch documentaries. If possible talk to people.
Consider Your Source Material:
There’s little point trying to gain a perspective on inner-city black culture by watching films from a white director who grew up in leafy Surrey. Seek out independent directors from those communities. And read the reviews – what are people saying about the portrayal? Try YouTube as a source of independent films.
Know Which Lines You Shouldn’t Cross:
Quentin Tarantino famously has lots of black characters using the N word regularly. If you are not black and aren’t Tarantino, just don’t! The chances are you’ll fall flat on your face and offend. Just as it’s no longer acceptable for white actors to wear dark makeup and portray people of colour, it’s rarely acceptable to gleefully chuck around racial slurs with the excuse ‘that’s how they speak to each other’. Remember, your book will likely be hanging around in some form for years to come. There are already TV shows from the early 2000s that are awkward to watch.
Know Your Limits:
I don’t mean in a censorious way, and I firmly believe that writers should stretch themselves. But also ask yourself if this is your story to tell – or more importantly, should you be telling it in this way? Do you have the skills to do so?
To put it bluntly, if I want to tell the story of a 12-year-old Afro-Caribbean girl who is bullied every day at school because of her hairstyle, then that is my right. But it would be foolish of me to attempt to write a novel in the first-person from her perspective. But perhaps I could tell a story about this girl. I could have some short, first-person introspection – perhaps using my own experiences to describe universal human feelings, such as dreading going to school or the fear as the bullies approach – but some of the feelings unique to this specific set of circumstances are probably beyond me as a writer.
Try To Avoid Stereotypes:
This is a good rule to follow for any writer, regardless of whether they are writing outside their own experience or not. I started my career as a research scientist. In many ways I personally tick a lot of the ‘traditional’ characteristics of the public perception of a scientist. Yet I am bored of seeing these same old depictions, because actually, when I think back to the diverse and varied people that have populated the laboratories I’ve worked in over the years, there weren’t actually that many folks that looked like me!
To show how easy it is to avoid these stereotypes, which range from the merely irritating, to the down-right harmful, I just Googled “what stereotypes about black people really annoy you?”. There are a huge numbers of articles, ranging from the personal, to the academic. A bit more finesse with my search terms would focus this even more.
Keep It Universal.
Given all of the above, it can be tempting to think ‘you know what? Writing characters from a different background is too dangerous – who wants to be this week’s Twitter target for folks with nothing better to do’?
And that’s fair enough. But if the characters in your novel are a homogenous mass, then everyone loses out. So why not play it safe? Stick with universal themes that are separated from specific cultural themes. I am never going to know what a twelve-year-old black girl being bullied about her hair is going to feel about what it says about her personal identity. But I can describe the steady rise of dread as the bus draws closer to the school, and I start praying that the bullies are absent that day.
Get Feedback:
If you are writing about a culture radically different to your own, then perhaps seek out someone from that section of society to give you some honest feedback. If your circle of acquaintances doesn’t include any suitable individuals, look online. There are plenty of internet and social media forums populated by folks who will be happy to read and critique and give advice.
Be Respectful.
To be told that what you have written is culturally-insensitive, offensive, or just plain wrong, is hard to hear. And unlike disagreements over style or plot, ignoring advice or concerns and ‘going with your gut’ can be fraught with danger. It may come back to bite you on the arse. In this case, it is better to engage constructively. The person objecting may have specific points that you can fix in the next draft. We all make mistakes when writing; the trick is to make sure they don’t make it into the finished book. Nobody, other than my beta readers, will ever know some of the howlers that were in early drafts of my various novels. This is no different.
Develop A Thick Skin:
And finally, sometimes you have to accept that as a writer, you are going to get it wrong now and again. There are also those who simply won’t accept that you should be writing such stories. Be humble, apologise where appropriate, and block where they are being unreasonable!

How do you feel about cultural appropriation or writing about other cultures? Do you have any recommendations for writers to avoid the pitfalls?
As always, feel free to comment here or on social media.
All the best,
Paul