Author Guest Post : Past or Present Tense? By Thomas Enger

The Very Pink Notebook is thrilled to be hosting a guest post from Cursed author, Thomas Enger, discussing why the fourth instalment in the Henning Juul collection is a little different from the rest...

Past or present tense?

If you have made it to Cursed, having read the first three novels in my Henning Juul series (Burned, Pierced, Scarred) you may have noticed a change in the fourth instalment in the series.

Know what it is?

No?

Well, let me tell you.

I'm always looking for ways to improve as an author, and that means experimenting a whole lot. The very first draft of Burned, the first book, was written in first person perspective, but my editor wanted me to change that, so I did. They made me change a bunch of other things as well, but that's another story.

Burned is written in the present tense, and the reason for that is that I just liked it when I first started writing the story. So it stuck with me until I was finished. And because I had written the first novel that way, it wrote the second and third one that way, too. I liked how close you get to the story when you're reading something that sort of takes place right then and there. That's certainly how it feels, right, when you read it? You are part of the journey somehow, you're sitting on the shoulder of the narrator, experiencing things that very second, with the characters in the story.

A little side note here: After I wrote the first three Henning Juul novels, I had a bit of time before the deadline for the fourth one was due, so I decided to finish another project I had been working on for quite some time, a dark fantasy young adult thriller called The Evil Legacy. That one I wrote in the first person present tense, and I had so much fun going back to that kind of narrative, so when the time came to go back to Cursed, I felt like having some more fun, to experiment some more. Besides, I had four novels under my belt. I knew a bit more about storytelling at that point.

So I decided to change again.  To the third person past tense perspective this time. Again, I was trying to improve, to push myself, and that meant getting out of my comfort zone.

It took me a while to get used to that way of telling a story, but I found the exercise helpful and rewarding in the sense that I felt more like a storyteller doing it that way, with the bird's eye view on everything. I'm in complete control, and you, as a reader, just have to go along for the ride and let me guide you through the story. I disclose to you just the details I want you to know at that particular point in the story.

Writers usually stick to the way they're most comfortable with, which is perfectly fine, of course. But isn't it funny how some readers just can't read a story that's told in the present tense, while others absolutely adore it? I actually had one editor assigned to me who was so opposed to stories told in the first tense that he couldn't bring himself to work with me in the end.

Books.

What a wonderful invention.

What it comes down to, I guess, is just taste. There are no "best ways" to write, or "best ways" to read, we just pick and choose what we like the most.

Me?

I like all kinds. I'm in love with stories, whether they are told in the first or the third person, whether they are told in the past or the present tense, whether they feature a male or a female protagonist, whether it's set in Oslo or Orlando, or if it's raining or scorching hot, as long as the narrative makes me feel something, and think. That's most the important thing. To me.

What are your preferences, and why? Would love to hear your thoughts. 

T : @EngerThomas

About the Author

Thomas Enger (b. 1973) is a former journalist.  He made his debut with the crime novel Burned in 2010, which became an international sensation before publication.  Burned is the first in a series of 5 books about the journalist Henning Juul, which delves into the depths of Oslo's underbelly, skewering the corridors of dirty politics and nailing the fast-moving world of 24-hour news.  Rights to the series have been sold to 26 countries to date.  In 2013 Enger published his first book for young adults, a dark fantasy thriller called The Evil Legacy, for which he won the U-prize (best book Young Adult).  Enger also composes music and he lives in Oslo.

W : http://www.thomasenger.net/about-thomas/

T : @EngerThomas

Guest Post by Justine John - Author of Gilding The Lily

Yesterday The Very Pink Notebook hosted the Gilding The Lily blog tour by author Justine John.  Today I am very excited to share a guest post from the author about her inspiration behind the book.

***  

My Inspiration Behind The Book

By Justine John

Much of the story is based on some things that happened to me during my father’s death which was very sudden.  That process of his illness and death, seemed to put me in a set of circumstances that challenged me greatly.  Organising a funeral in a foreign country is challenging, but because I wasn’t expecting it, I felt as though I was in a dream and the things that happened around me were almost fictional.  It was a coping mechanism I suppose. I came out of that process with a story.

I tried to begin the book too soon – I knew I had to get something out, and I wrote Chapter 1, but couldn’t go any further.  I just didn’t know what to put next.

It wasn’t until I came through the grieving completely, about three years later, that I began to write again.  In 2013, a health issue took over, and a major operation loomed.  I was advised that I would not be able to work for a minimum of eight weeks – probably more like sixteen.  I had begun to resent some of my work projects (life was too short), and I was feeling almost shackled; only a sense of duty, not ‘earning’ a living stopped me from giving up.  But now I was being forced to stop for a while – so stop I did.  In my tracks.  Here it was – my chance to get that story in my head on paper.  So the day I was home from hospital, I began Chapter 2.  And I never looked back.

Amelia, the main character, and I have much in common.  We both come from a divorced parentage, and experienced difficulty and abnormality in our upbringing.  And we both have a massive internal need to please our fathers.  As all good writers do, I took some personal experience and whipped it up with a lot of fiction and made it into what is hopefully a good story.

Now I’ve started I very much want to continue.  I will begin my second Novel in early 2017 and hopefully continue with the same characters but in a different way, using a similar formula.  Hopefully this time it won’t take me so long!

Guest Post : My Typical Writing Day by Catherine Ryan Howard author of Distress Signals

Distress Signals author Catherine Ryan Howard shares a tongue-in-cheek guest post with The Very Pink Notebook into her writing day...

 

 

MY TYPICAL WRITING DAY

A Guest Post by Catherine Ryan Howard

23:00(ish)    My writing day typically begins the night before, when I get notions about being super organised and doing all those 263 Things Successful People Do Before They Even Wake Up malarkey. I organise my desk, open my WIP on my computer and set the coffee machine to start brewing just in time to have my first cup of coffee at six o’clock the following morning. The smell, noise and promise of caffeine will get me out bed. No, it totally will.

Next day

06:00    Alarm goes off.

06:01    Turn off alarm. Fall back asleep.

07:15    Wake up again.

07:16    Fall back asleep.

08:45    Wake up for real. Ugh, I’ve slept in! AND wasted a bucket of coffee. No point rushing now, I suppose. Find phone. Quick check on Twitter before I get out of bed...

10:30    *buzzer goes* Crap. That’s the postman with the huge amount of superfluous stationery I ordered online a few days ago when I was procrastinating by shopping online. *mad scramble to put on Outside Clothes* Well, at least I’m up now.

10:35    Obligatory playing with stationery.

11:10    Okay, enough messing about. You’ve LOADS to do. Time to get down to work. But first, coffee.

11:25    Finally sit down at desk. But who starts work at twenty-five minutes pass the hour? Only a crazy person! I’ll start at noon. Until then, I’ll just do a quick round of email-Twitter-blog comments-Facebook-Instagram...

12:45    Well, that’s lunch. Practically. May as well watch a couple of Friends episodes while I’m eating.

14:00    Okay, seriously. SERIOUSLY. Work now. Open WIP. Where did I leave off yesterday? There? Are you sure? Better go back to the start, 30,000 words ago, and read it again from the beginning, just to be REALLY sure.

14:30    Hmm… Am I using that big word right? I’ll just quickly check the definition. And now, since I’m online, I may as well just check Twitter...

15:10    Tom Hiddleston is rumoured to be going out with WHO?!

15:15    Tom Hiddleston was in that movie? Really? I don’t remember him at all. Maybe there’s a clip on YouTube..

15:25    Ted Talks and more coffee.

15:45    Back to reading what I wrote so far.

17:45    Finish reading what I wrote so far. Discover I’d left off exactly where I thought I did. There really was no reason to go back and read the whole thing... Now it’s almost Friends re-run o’clock (again), and then I’ve to make dinner, and then Master Chef will be on so... Oh well. Tomorrow’s another day.

23:00(ish)    Tomorrow I’m going to get up early, ignore social media and write 10,000 words. Yes I am yes I am yes I am. Organise my desk, open the Word document that my current WIP is in on my computer and set the coffee machine to start brewing just in time to have my first cup of coffee at six o’clock...

 

 

I think a lot of aspiring writers will be thrilled to read they are not alone in procrastinating!  Also, I must invest in a coffee maker I can programme to start itself in the mornings!  Thank you Catherine for guest posting with The Very Pink Notebook and congratulations on a fantastic novel. 

 

 

 

ABOUT DISTRESS SIGNALS:

 

Standalone crime/thriller

 

Published May 5 by Corvus/Atlantic in Ireland and the UK, June 2 in Australia and New Zealand. Details of North American publication later in 2016 coming soon.

 

Did she leave, or was she taken?

 

The day Adam Dunne's girlfriend, Sarah, fails to return from a Barcelona business trip, his perfect life begins to fall apart. Days later, the arrival of her passport and a note that reads 'I'm sorry - S' sets off real alarm bells. He vows to do whatever it takes to find her.

 

Adam is puzzled when he connects Sarah to a cruise ship called the Celebrate - and to a woman, Estelle, who disappeared from the same ship in eerily similar circumstances almost exactly a year before. To get the answers, Adam must confront some difficult truths about his relationship with Sarah. He must do things of which he never thought himself capable. And he must try to outwit a predator who seems to have found the perfect hunting ground...

 

Advance praise:

 

“Pacey, suspenseful and intriguing … [A] top class, page turning read. Catherine Ryan Howard is an astonishing new voice in thriller writing.” — Liz Nugent, author of 2014 IBA Crime Novel of the Year Unravelling Oliver

 

“An exhilarating debut thriller from a hugely talented author. Distress Signals is fast-paced, twisty and an absolute joy to read.” — Mark Edwards, #1 bestselling author of The Magpies and Follow You Home

 

Read a preview of the first three chapters here:

 

https://catherineryanhoward.com/access-your-exclusive-preview/

 

Amazon.co.uk link:

 

https://www.amazon.co.uk/Distress-Signals-Incredibly-Gripping-Psychological/dp/1782398384

 

ABOUT CATHERINE:

 

Catherine Ryan Howard was born in Cork, Ireland, in 1982. Prior to writing full-time, Catherine worked as a campsite courier in France and a front desk agent in Walt Disney World, Florida, and most recently was a social media marketer for a major publisher. She is currently studying for a BA in English at Trinity College Dublin.

 

http://www.DistressSignalsBook.com

 

http://www.CatherineRyanHoward.com

 

Twitter: @cathryanhoward

Instagram: @cathryanhoward

Facebook: facebook.com/catherineryanhoward

 

 

 

 

Guest Post by Author Lucy Dawson - Being Popular

As part of The Very Pink Notebook Feature Week, I Sent You a Letter author, Lucy Dawson, guest posts on the need, or not, for likeable characters in novels.

I’m wrestling with a character at the moment. She’s the lead in my next book and I’ve deliberately made her not entirely likeable. Sally has moments where she’s nice, and (I hope) the reader feels sympathy for her, and moments where she’s frankly, a bit of a cow. I did this because something happens to her in the book that I felt would have more power, if the reader felt Sally at least slightly deserved it. Plus, it makes her more interesting to write. But, and it’s a big but: are readers more likely to be swept along by the tale of someone they really like – or really hate – rather than someone who is just ‘normal’ and realistically flawed?

 

It’s certainly true that as a reader you’ve got to care about what happens to the characters in a book. No one is going to invest their time in the story of people they feel nothing for. It’s also less of a risk as a writer to make a character sympathetic, someone your reader can empathise with, and so imagines the events happening to them. In my current book You Sent Me A Letter, Sophie – the lead – is a kind girl who has made a terrible mistake. That turned out to be a fun challenge; creating someone readers identified with, even though she’d done something very unlikable indeed. That’s still different to having a character who is just… not very pleasant, however. Of course, behaving badly didn’t seem to do Amy Dunne any harm, and Hugh Laurie’s Richard Roper in the BBC’s The Night Manager is completely mesmeric. You really can believe that he is ‘the worst man in the world’ – but equally, do you want to know what he does next? Absolutely.

 

Perhaps that means lead characters only really work when they sit definably at either end of the scale. So what do I do with poor Sally? Take the safe option and make her softer, less prone to snappy and arsey comments? Make the reader have no choice but to feel sorry for her? Or do I tough it, and her, out? Some writers would argue that having a likeable character shouldn’t be a conscious consideration at all. The Sunday Times yesterday quoted Charlie Kaufman, the screenwriter of Adaption, Being John Malkovich and Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind as saying “I’m trying to explore a character and maybe, in that process make the character understandable. That’s the goal of dramatic writing. Not to make people likeable. Maybe it doesn’t serve the box office. I don’t know. I can’t think of things that way, so I don’t choose to. It feels like pandering.”

 

In an ideal world, maybe he’s right. But I think perhaps I am going to have to soap Sally’s mouth out a little, because in the world of fiction at least, the nice girls don’t finish last.