The Worlds of Michael J. Parry

Category: Writing

  • The Writer’s Choices: Reflections On Owner’s Share

    It has been a while since a piece of work has had me thinking so hard about the writing process as Nathan Lowell’s Owners Share. I have lots of thought on the story, and on writing, especially the choices authors make.

    I have to give a lot of props to Nathan for superb delivery, engagement with the fans and support to fellow podiobook authors. As a series comes to an end it is a good time to say thanks for all the effort he has put in. 🙂

    I won’t say too much about Owner’s Share, except I didn’t like the ending. As an ending to a series and a book, I can see why Nathan took it there. But for a number of reasons I feel it was a bad way to end. It is my personal view but I think a series ending should always be upbeat, leaving the audience with a strong feeling of satisfaction, and with the promise that if we never come back to there again, we can be happy with where we leave the story. The ending just didn’t deliver that for me and for a number of other fans. 🙁

    This has led me to reflect on the relationship between authors, readers/listeners and their characters. It is true that in the end the author “owns” the destiny of their characters, but in a series often the readers/listeners will feel a strong level of ownership of the character. They will have an invested interest in where the character ends up.  Where that differs from the authors, how much notice should the author take of the “fans” views? It can be problematic for the author as they risk alienating the fans if they take the story too far from where the fan base wants it. I am now unsure as to how I feel about the Share series as a whole, but I will still listen to my favourite stories again, and again, and agian. And then maybe a few more times. 🙂 So yeah I would recommend the series to anyone!

    As an author I hope to one day have a strong fan base, so how I deal with that is going to be important. In the end I think as an author I need to listen to where my audience wants me to take them. In the writing of my current Fursk and Gurt story I started to take one of the characters down a particular path, and my chief sounding board sat me down and told me in on uncertain terms that as a reader she didn’t want me to go there. That story arch was cancelled and after a while I can see that was the right choice. It is still my story, and the characters destinies are wholly in my hands, but I feel I should  take that into consideration. Next time I come to that point I wonder which will win, the author’s voice or the fan’s. Best two out of three?

  • Reflections On Writing The Emotional Connection

    There is this rule in writing, that you should show not tell. I think I get that, and I hope I write to that, as it is quite hard to work to. I imagine they use a similar guideline in movie making, though with a slight variation in meaning. I think it is a very important concept when attempting to make an emotional connection.

    I was up late last night, not writing but channel surfing, which was not good when I stumbled upon Schindler’s List, which is movie that gets that. Schindler’s List is not a movie I would go out of my way to watch. In fact I saw when it first came out and swore never to watch it again, mainly because I don’t want to put myself through the raw emotional anxious it arouses. Nevertheless I found myself drawn back into the movie, despite knowing what was coming. That is the power of a incredibly well crafted movie.

    Afterwards, having put myself through the emotional wringer, I found myself reflecting on storytelling, showing and not telling and emotional connection. Now in The Spiral Tattoo and The Oaks Grove I am not setting out to create any great emotional response. Sure I want to create an emotional connection, but it is more of a happy, what a great romp, connection. I off course think there is a place for that, otherwise I wouldn’t write it.

    But I was left wondering if I could write that. If I could write a story that elicits a powerful emotion connection. I think so, but it would be that much more difficult to achieve. Maybe my next story should be in that mode?

    Of course I would need to finish the story I am supposed to be writing at the moment first. The Oaks Grove has not progressed as well as I would have liked. I need to knuckle down, work through the small writer’s block I have in place, and stop procrastinating.

    As a wise man once said, do or do not, there is no try.

  • A Christmas Tale: A Short Story Written For Everyphototells

    My second story for Everyphototells, Dreaming of a different Christmas, as read by Mick Bordet, has been released.  It can be found at Every Photo Tells. Mick does a superb job again. In fact I quite like my stories told in that Scottish accent. 🙂

  • A Writing Update

    It’s been an interesting year on the writing front. Projects have come and gone, stories started, and finished.  As it’s coming up to Christmas I thought I should give a small update on how things are going with my writing, and in the world of Fursk and Gurt.

    Since I have changed my day job, my writing has not gone so well.  The transition period has been very interesting indeed. I hope though to get back into it, but I doubt I will meet my end of year deadline for The Oaks Grove.  So Fursk and Gurt are waiting patiently for me to get back to them, and I will! Promise 🙂

    I have however another short story coming soon on Everyphototells. I will post it up here once it is released over there.

  • Every Photo – One Dusty Road

    My story One Dusty Road as read by Mick Bordet has been released.  It can be found at Every Photo Tells. Go check it out. I may be biased, but I think it sounds fabulous! I especially like the Scottish accent 🙂

  • The Oaks Grove: An Update

    For those of you who may be interested in the progress I am making on the second Fursk and Gurt story, I have now completed my chapter outline, and the first quarter of the story is in the bag.

    I am now back on target to finish a great swath of the story for NaNoWriMo with the raw word count sitting at 20,534.

  • The Oaks Grove

    The second Fursk and Gurt is now well started. I won’t give you a word count update, but it is starting to flow nicely. I will give you a few details. 🙂

    This is what Gurt has to say about it all:

    “Elanore has written a book. Not just any book, but philosophical treatise, as if she wasn’t out there enough already. Then it gets worse. She is invited by one of her philosophical heroes to come to his private retreat for a few days of deep and meaningful conversation. And she accepts. What is a  chap to do? Of course I have to go with her to steer her through the social reefs. And of course all hell breaks loose when the man himself turns up dead. Secrets will be exposed, blood will be spilled and along the way we might just learn a little more about each other.”

     

  • Short Stories

    I haven’t posted much in a while, sorry about that folks. Latter in the week I will give you an update on how the second Fursk and Gurt is progressing. In the meantime here are two short stories I have written. They are in some ways complete opposites. One I wrote for the Every Page Has podcast, and I hope they like it enough to produce it. It’s downbeat for me, so not my normal fair. The second I wrote when I was toying with maybe submitting to The People’ Friend.  It’s a very gentle story, which was not really me either. But here they are any way.

    One Dusty Road 

    Fencing Dreams

  • The Oaks Grove

    I have started the next book in the Tales of Fursk and Gurt. It has a working title of The Oaks Grove. It will be my NaNoWriMo month project, but I hope to exceed the 50,000 word target for that writing challenge. The Spiral Tattoo sits at around 76,000 words and I want to aim to keep this one at a similar length. Which means, with my aim to finish this story by late November, early December, I will want to exceed the 50,000 words in November mark.

    As I write I will keep you posted on the progress. Here’s hoping for regular positive updates 🙂

     

  • Feedback And New Writing

    I have been immensely pleased to receive some positive feedback, both here and at podiobooks. It has been a real boost. Especially the comments that people would like to hear more. It has helped me to confirm that I am on the right track with these stories.

    As I have been struggling with editing the manuscript, with the intention of being able to send it to publishers/agents,  I am going to put The Spiral Tattoo aside for a while and start in earnest onto the second.

    I have a rough idea for four stories. Having looked at the feedback, and talked about the rough outlines with Kylie, who is my narrator, editor [unpaid], and cheerleader,  I have decided to switch them around and advance number three  into number two position.

    I don’t really have a set writing pattern yet, but for The Spiral Tattoo I wrote my best when I had a plan.  This then is my target for this week. Plan book two, as yet unnamed, and write chapter one and two. Going from previous experience, I should be able to finish this by the end of November. With December, January for editing I hope to have this second title ready for recording by February next year.

    So Fursk and Gurt will be back… And you never know if we get really going it may be sooner than expected 🙂