I know it sounds unlikely and whatnot, but I really would love to write a book and get it published.
personally, I am trying to read more books (currently reaidng Da Vinci Code), and what I find I love about it is that at the end of each chapter, it has a cliff hanger taht makes you want to keep going.
I was just wondering what you all like about books you enjoy reading.
wtf
vvv
If you want to publish without the hassle, I suggest http://www.lulu.com. It also means you're certain to get published. :D
Personally, I don't like Dan Brown's style of writing. The only way he keeps you hooked is by a cliffhanger at the end of every chapter, and it gets very frustrating. There's no emotive language, really.
The best advice I can give to to be descriptive, and stay away from voiceovers.
That's true, sometime I notice his writing doesn't seem to good. What do you mean voice overs? bland dialogue or something?
thanks.
Well, I'm talking really in the sense of writing for film (which is what I felt Brown was doing with the Langdon books), but the only time you can really inroduce something from the narrator/author is a fantasy book, to set the tone for strange things. With actual people and a topic a bit more tactile, you need to convey things with a bit more clarity.
Instead of, for example, saying
'The laboratory was built in 1982, but had recently been refurbished. Unfinished experiments hung from the walls like cadavers in a butcher's shop.'
say something like
'John looked around the wide room he had just entered. He took in the clinical cleanliness of the stainless steel worktops, the feeling of a modern laboratory only slightly betrayed by the nicotine-stained tiles coating the walls. The carcasses of what could only be experiments lined the walls on meathooks, dripping eerily, putting John forcibly in mind of a memory of the butcher's as a small boy.'
It's by no means perfect, but it's told from John's point of view, and it creates a greater sense of immersion - and a lot more detail with a human touch.
so basically add more details so it can be visualized easily by soemone who's reading it, rather than describing it like its right from a movie?
Okay, I think i'm good at details and what not.
It's not just about having detail though, the way all the information is presented is more important. You have to really feel like you're standing there in the setting with the character, discovering all the things around you.
Well this might be going against what I just said, but - try to imply a lot of detail without being too descriptive. The best thing about books is that they don't force an image down your throat - the reader engages with it and creates their own world around the structure you've given them. The more they can do that, the more they feel as if they 'know' the book, the characters, the setting, and the mroe real it becomes. It gives a boost to the self-esteem if it seems like the reader has 'got' a joke, or something, without it being impressed upon too hard. To be crude, it's the difference between saying 'Person X farted', and saying 'a smell filled the room. "That's awful, Person X," remarked Person Y.'
well, in this one story I'm writing, I usually focus more on the entertaining aspect of things. Liek this for example (please don't copy):
I got into the line and waited a few more decades. Finally we got into the kitchen area, where we picked out the most edible-looking assortments of food. Some extremely bitter beans, mashed potatoes that didn’t have any hair in them and some chicken sandwiches that were pink on the inside.
I went into a check out line.
“Oh, I don’t have my card, but I know my number,” I said.
“You need your ID card to buy food,” the ugly lunch lady said.
“Well, I don’t have my card yet. They haven’t made it yet or given it to me,” I replied.
The lunch lady sighed, “Look I ain’t supposed to let anyone without cards get through, but I don’t want to talk to your ugly mug for another minute, so what’s yer numbah?”
“Seven zero two one,” I said as she typed in eleven five three six.
“Apparently ya don’t know your numbah,” she said.
“Seven zero two one,” I replied. “I think you punched it in wrong.”
“Shut ya trap, ya cracker,” the lunch lady said.
“I’m not white,” I replied as she typed in two five eight nine.
“Seven zero two one.”
She typed in three five six A.
“A isn’t a number. My number is SEVEN ZERO TWO ONE!”
She typed in banana.
“SEVEN ZERO TWO ONE! OH MY ***, I’LL JUST TYPE IT IN FOR YOU OKAY?”
I pushed her aside and typed it in, frustrated. Why am I going through all this trouble to eat an undercooked chicken sandwich?
I sat down and bit into my sandwich. The chicken was pink and I think that red spot was a blood vessel.
“School sucks,” I said.
“Yeah.”
I like it. But going from what I said before, I don't think the '“SEVEN ZERO TWO ONE! OH MY ***, I’LL JUST TYPE IT IN FOR YOU OKAY?”' line is necessary. And the 'Why am I going through all this trouble to eat an undercooked chicken sandwich?' - might be better as 'I wondered why I was going through all this trouble to get an undercooked chicken sandwich'.
Stick to your style, but remember to keep the reader in mind.
that "why am i going thorugh all this" line is supposed to be italicized, so it's actually a thought rather than just waht the narrater is saying, but it isn't italicized there. So if it was the narrater speaking i'd make it like you suggested.
But yeah, i might want to redo that all-caps line.
I'm always a bit hazy on thoughts, because they're essentially voiceovers. They aren't attached to anything. But the prefix 'I wondered' shows the thought without actually shoving it down the readers' throats.
Hm. I might not change that line, but I might use the "I wondered" prefix for toher times. I dunno.
What do you think about the overall humor of it and whatnot? I'm trying to write an entertaining book.
I rolled my eyes when I was out of sight, walking to a disgusting, moldy, damp seat. A pungent and abhorrent scent entered my nostrils, ripping apart my olfactory senses. The dank bus howled loudly; as a result, I could not take a nap. I wouldn’t be able to if it was quiet, anyway, because the ride was too short.
The bus stopped at the school, illuminated square windows peering at me, mocking my very being here. The bus door hissed open, and the driver instructed us to get in a single file line and to walk off quietly.
I sighed as I walked along the concrete path, starring at the hundreds of slain mosquitoes that lined the walkway. The cold weather still jabbed my skin as I entered the building.
It's good, but there's always going to be a but. I think you still need to find your tone. Right now it seems like you're a schoolkid, but it's mixed in with this vocab that typical schoolchildren don't have, and it just makes you seem pretentious. I mean, an abhorrent scent ripping apart your olfactory senses? :D
Just because you can use vocab like that doesn't mean you have to. Don't lose the sense or impact of what you're saying simply because you want to use big words, and end up confusing the reader.
But yeah, for a first draft, it's good. You'll probably find that by the end of the book you'll know exactly how the book 'feels', and you'll go back and read the first bits you wrote and just rip them to shreds before you get it right in your mind. But that's part of being an author. :)
Yeah, thanks. Yeah, I was looking at that line when he brought it up and I realized it wasn't that good. I'll fix that part up sometime.
Thanks.