I love to read… everything…
I have the compulsion to read. It can be a short story I come across, a news item, or the words on that packet of cornflakes that someone forgot to put back in the cupboard.
I am also addicted to all those “How to be a Better Writer” books, and I must have read dozens of them in my time. All that self-doubt, I suppose.
My current read is The Anatomy of Story by John Truby.
This book may have changed the way I write forever. Every single chapter has highlighted either something I have been doing wrong, or worse still, not been doing at all.
I was getting in a pickle with the current WIP (I am hoping this is due to my present circumstances) so picking up this book was probably one of the better things I’ve done lately.
One of John Truby’s pearls of wisdom for the secret of an excellent book is that ‘your characters must be real people, extraordinarily real.’
One glance at mine stopped me in my tracks.
Never mind the characters, my story didn’t feel real either. The magic just wasn’t there. I had been hoping it would grow if I persevered, but every time I picked it up, I was disappointed.
There are three main characters in my story. Three very different men. Any one of them could turn out to be the villain or the hero. And that’s the premise of the story right there: keep the reader guessing until the end.
But I knew these men very well, having created them in my mind. Unfortunately, much of this knowledge has not found its way to the paper. The story will have to be rewritten, and most of all, these men need work….
Sink or swim?
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