Get Your Writing Noticed: Writing fiction for the 21st century
The first thing you have to do to get your fiction noticed is to write in a style that is up to date.
An up to date style?
I read a novel from a hundred years ago a while back and after page one I wanted to throw it away.
The style was long-winded. Every sentence had thirty words. I could imagine the lives people lived back then, when the next interruption would be the bell for lunch, two hours from now.
Readers these days live in a world of constant interruption.
Media, mobiles and madness lure people away from books all the time. Our job as writers is to provide fiction that can be assimilated between other tasks.
In order to achieve the goal of writing in an up to date style I suggest you consider the following four characteristics of compelling early 21st century fiction:
Accuracy. Accuracy is now realistically attainable for fiction writers. We can find out how the Welsh valleys look in December, how hot Paris is in the Spring and listen to the sound of a wren whenever we want because of the internet. Flights of fancy are good, at times, but reality has a power that can be used for good effect. The truth is often stranger than fiction. Finding out that Paris is no warmer than London in Spring is the sort of information that leads to readers being able to place themselves in the city.
Being Fantastic. Fantastic to me means being absurd, exotic and imaginative, to choose some of the long list of definition words in my dictionary for fantastic. Add a sparkle to your fiction. Yes, I know it’s interesting that Aunt Maud went to work in a shop for twenty years and Uncle Fred made her tea every night, but I want to see Aunt Maud going to work in a man’s suit, with a flat cap, and learn that Uncle Fred was a circus midget with six brothers who shared his bedroom for six months of the year. Absurd, exotic and imaginative novels can be seen on the bookshelves of all good bookshops.
Being Sensuous. To me being sensuous is about being passionate, in touch with our senses. We all know what being passionate is in the traditional sense, but I also think it is about having passion for your work, for your writing. Being in touch with your senses means being able to describe how something feels. Take raining for instance. We should be able to describe the taste of rainwater, the silky feel of it on our faces, the sound of it tapping with a million hammers at our windows and the tiny circles it makes in the puddles. That’s what makes writing jump of the page.
And Gripping. With all the distractions around us, it is an essential element of 21st century writing to be gripping. Something must happen. There must be conflict. There must be tension. There must be mystery. What keeps me, and millions of readers of crime, romance, mystery and the better literary novels interested is a desire to find out what is going to happen next. You can do that by making us feel with the characters. Being gripping is something you cannot disdain if you want a large readership.
So what have these four items got to do with getting your writing noticed and into bookshops?
Dubray Books, Dublin
They are the basic building blocks of getting your writing noticed.
If your writing has these characteristics you have a real chance.
This post is the starting point on a voyage exploring the world of getting your writing noticed.
For the next post in this series, on grabbing your readers attention go here.
Please leave feedback, make suggestions and engage. This series of posts needs you to get involved to make them fly.
And please sign-up using the secure sign-up button above right to receive notifications in your inbox when post’s are released.
If you would like to discuss this post or for me to review your writing and give brief feedback without charge (page 1 of your MS only please) contact me via the comments below or by email: lpobryan@googlemail.com
Here are some links to useful information for writers:
socialmediaisdynamite.blogspot.com for my blog on using social media to get noticed.
The reality of being published – 2 months after my first book came out all over the UK I wrote this post
The Accessible Author – how the author’s role is changing
Frantic Editing – a post on the editing process my first novel went through in the summer of 2011
Finally, a big thank you to all my readers, everyone who comments and everyone who visits. I hope you find this information useful on your journey to getting your writing noticed.
Please reblog, link to, Tweet, post or mention this post. There are links to do that above and mainly below.
Oops! I didn’t expect the cover to be so blatantly large. Sorry. I’ll not be offended if you feel you need to dump the whole comment. It’s just that you have to take opportunities when you spot them.
You might as well delete this comment as it wasn’t intended for publication and was really just an apology for the massive image on the previous comment which nobody can see. Or you could leave it here and continue to make us both look as though we don’t know what we’re doing.
Sounds good. I’ll be around on the day. Thanks
When I was younger (in primary school and lower high school), I used to read a book a day. Reading was like breathing. But for a reason I could never completely comprehend, as upper high school set in, my ability to read as I once was able to began to dissipate, and now I can barely finish a novel, or it takes me months to get through a book… I had always thought it had something to do with my studies, but after reading your post, I think you’ve nailed it on the head! Life truly is busier, there being too many distractions – the distractions are exactly why I haven’t been able to maintain my attention on the kind of books I love (the classics – Jane Austin’s works, the Bronte sisters). Thanks for this post – it was very useful, especially as I begin my own journey to becoming a published writer!
Thank you so much for your generous sharing of advice and info, all really interesting. So true about 100 yr old fiction – I just tried to re-read Thomas Hardy’s Jude the Obscure recently and found myself getting really impatient …. All the points you have mentioned are really helpful for a novice such as I and thanks for the links. I can see from your own comments that you are genuinely interested in others too – very endearing in this day and age! Will look forward to the next installment!
Thanks Judith. So glad you came by. Every month I will be posting and if you are writing let me know what you are working on. Wishing you all the best, Laurence.
Thanks so much for sharing Laurence. Sound advice indeed >
Thanks for writing this series. I look forward to it!
Thanks Mary. Please do get involved.
I agree with you words. People don’t have time in this world to sit down and read a book every day for a week. Instead they need books that move quickly and can be read in a few days. I myself would describe myself as an avid book reader. It is my summer holidays from college and I had imagined by now I had intended to read far more books than I have, instead my computer, twitter and my blog are constantly pulling me away from my books.
It get’s harder and harder to find time for reading. Any novel has to be truly good to capture our attention. Thanks for coming by! Hope to see all commenting people again!
thanks for this – looking forward to next time
I think you are right! With all of the distractions, the story has to be great. It’s very kind of you to give advise to the new writers. I read your articles and they are very helpful! Can’t wait next month’s article! P.S. I just bought your novel in Amazon, I’ll write a review about it! I’ll recommend you here in Mexico.
Thank you, Eduardo. It is amazing to talk to you. I appreciate all your kind thoughs. Best wishes from sunny Ireland!
One of my favorite writers, Patrick O’Brian, put me off for years with the opening line from his book The Far Side of the World. It was a one-sentence paragraph that took up half a page. I put the book down wondering where the hell his editor had been. I still wonder — but I’m a major fan.
I particularly like your POV on being accurate and sensuous…those two play off each other. I have a scene in a novel I’m writing where the protagonist, an American fighter pilot in WW2, fires his fighter’s guns for the first time. The gun breeches are mounted in the cockpit — and the comment from one of the writers in the group I belong to was, “But what does the burnt gunpowder smell like?”
So good luck with your series and your writing! I like your research style, BTW.
Thanks Tom. Letting the reader feel what it’s like to be firing those guns is what makes fiction work IMO. All the best with your writing too.
Thanks for the tips. Although each tip by itself is rather common sense, as a group and in writing, they seem to take on a new depth of significance. Your offer to review first pages of manuscripts is very generous. Thank you again.
Kim
Ooo! Well, this gives me a kick in the pants to fix up that first page! Thanks! I like the way you’ve explained the three important parts – especially “Fantastic”. At first I admit I was like “well duh, fantastic, it’s gotta be good!” but then you took it a different direction!
Thanks Kaitlin! Good luck with the writing. Lots more here soon!
Great share! I will email the first page of my manuscript for your expertise! Thanks!
All good points, Laurence; however, here’s a salutary tale in the opposite direction: Henry James was universally loathed and despised at my university. No-one could stand his awful, poncey, paragraphically long sentences, full of qualifiers and modifiers. Then, later, I read The Turn Of The Screw. Brilliant! Now I love him for everything he writes.
Similarly with Jane Austen, until I had to teach her at A-level. It was then, once I began to see how she works that i began at last to respect her.
My point here is that some writers, though less accessible than others, are well worth the candle.
Thanks for yer stuff!
Regards,
Jackie.
Jacquelyn,
Henry James & Jane Austen were wonderful writers, I agree, but writing today is a different challenge. We have to compete with web sites and movies. Writing for the 21st century reader requires a different approach, if you want to get published and read widely. I am sure you can find exceptions to this rule, but any study of the best selling charts will tell us that most top selling writers have already adapted. Your point is still valid, however, and thank you for making it. Laurence
I love your insights–I’m so looking forward to your next post on getting your non-fiction noticed!
Many, many thanks, Lisa! That next post is up here: http://lpobryan.com/2012/07/06/get-your-writing-noticed-how-to-grab-your-readers-attention/
Enjoy!
Lots of food for thought in the post and in the comments.Thank goodness not every reader likes the same kind of novel,though I agree it’s vital to be aware of the limited time people have for reading now.
Thank You I look forward to reading the rest of this series. It gives me some good questions to ask as I look at my work.
Thank you for your very helpful advice.
A discussion I had with a friend yesterday led to the observation that during Soviet times in Russia, because there was a shortage of windscreen wipers, people would remove them when they parked their cars at home in the evening to prevent them being stolen. It’s details and accounts such as that one that really tell a story and brings color to it.
Great post. I read a lot. Currently, I’m plowing through one of those challenging books, Ten North Frederick, by John O’Hara, written in the 1950s.. No chapters, humungously long paragraphs, a multitude of characters painstakingly detailed. It’s a bit of a slog, but I’m fascinated. His characters are so nuanced that I’m compelled to continue. Still, I can only read four to six pages at a time. Hmm.
Thanks, Diana. I have a few books I am working my way through like that. It lets me digest them properly! All the best.
i disagree that we should be writing books that can be read inbetween other tasks. Recently i went to see a film and saw people texting from time to time which really saddened me as i think it reflected our inability to focus on a single task. What I loved about Ian Rankin when i discovered him last year was how much his books pulled you in and made you want to keep going – to set out to write a book that can be put down so that you can tweet to your friends about something else is to set out to fail
Why are writers of every genre suddenly so afraid to assume their readers are intelligent enough to focus on a single task for a while?
I think you misunderstood. I support writing books that are engaging, as Rankin is for you. That is the supreme writer’s goal. My point is that slow moving novels, which lack engagement are less likely to do well.
Excellent points, especially when an exception proves the rule. Looking forward to the continuing series.