Reading and Writing—Two Essentials for a Happy Writer!

This week Edge Author Dave Cousins asks how much does the ability to write, depend on your dedication as a reader.

Finding time to write alongside the demands of a family and a job—even if that job is being a writer—can be a balancing act. Before I was fortunate enough to be published and had to squeeze writing time into early starts, late nights, train journeys and lunch breaks, I sometimes found that I didn't have time to read. Free time was so scare, it seemed more important to spend it creating my own stories rather than reading somebody else's. I eventually found that logic to be somewhat flawed – in my case at least. Now I firmly agree with Stephen King, who said, “If you don’t have time to read, then you don’t have the time (or the tools) to write.”

It may look like I'm taking it easy with a book.
In reality this is an intensive training workout!

Over the years I’ve noticed that when I’m not reading every day, my writing flows less freely. An obvious analogy would be the sporting one: that reading is an important part of maintaining a level of writing fitness, like an athlete training every day. When I’m reading a lot, my writing feels natural, instinctive – fitter, if you like. Or as The King puts it: “Constant reading will pull you into a place where you can write eagerly and without self-consciousness.” For me, it’s about filling my subconscious with words and stories – the rhythm of sentences and paragraphs, the pace of a well spun yarn.

“Every successful writer I know is also a great reader.” – Robert Cormier

When I started to write, I worried that my own stories, or rather my voice, would start to sound like whatever I was reading, but that didn’t happen. Instead, I find that reading somebody else's words helps to clear my head, and stops me thinking about my own for a while, so I'm fresher when I return.

But what about you? Here at the Edge we are always interested to hear other people’s experience. How does reading sit alongside your writing? Does it help? Does it interfere? Does it matter what you read? Leave a comment in the box below and let us know. Thanks.

Meanwhile, here are a couple of posts you might enjoy by fellow Edge authors on a similar theme:

Reading For My Writing by Miriam Halahmy

Writing Tips Part 6 by Sara Grant

Dave Cousins is the author (and sometimes illustrator!) of a number of award-winning books for young people. Visit www.davecousins.net for more info.

Book Titles and Songs by Savita Kalhan

 When I begin a new project I have to have a working title for the first draft. That title may change a few times, or remain the same, but I find it very difficult to work without one. Some writers are inspired by songs, their titles and lyrics, mood and feel. I listen to lots of music, but only rarely when I’m writing.

I’m just at the beginning of a new project and I’m looking for a title. I have one in mind that might work. While I was thinking about a title, I discovered that there are so many books that share their title with a song, and even quite a few Teen/YA titles. The Beatles seemed to have inspired more book titles than anyone else.

More Than This – Roxy Music, and Peter Gabriel. The title of Patrick Ness’s YA novel, More than This, may possibly Have had something to do with Peter Gabriel’s version of the song.

 

Buffalo Soldier – Bob Marley. The song title is also the title of a book by Tanya Landman, recently shortlisted for the Carnegie, and one of my favourite teen/YA reads of 2014.

Less than Zero – Elvis Costello. The title was used by Brett Easton Ellis for his debut novel

Night Shift – Commodores. Book by Stephen King

Nowhere Man – The Beatles. This title has been used over and over again.

Norwegian Wood – The Beatles. Book by Haruki Murakami. I won’t mention any more Beatles songs that are also book titles because there are simply too many!

The Day the Music Died, lyric from American Pie by Don McLean, also a book title by Ed Gorman (Sam Mcain #1)

Long Time Coming – Sam Cooke. Book by Sandra Brown

Here are 8 songs that I think would make a great book title

I've added a few links to some of the songs, so just click on LISTEN if you'd like to hear the song.

The Road to Nowhere – Talking Heads

LISTEN

Blowin’ in the Wind – Bob Dylan
LISTEN

Welcome to the Jungle – Guns and Roses

 My Name Is – Eminem

Straight to Hell – the Clash

 Blue Monday – New Order

 

Bright Side of the Road – Van Morrison

LISTEN

Song of the Black Swan – Pink Martini

What song titles do you think would make good book titles?


Savita's Website

Savita on Twitter

 

Which is better, the Book or the Film? Edge author Dave Cousins throws down a gauntlet for a discussion on book to film adaptations.

One of our aims when starting the Edge was to provide a focus for discussion about books for young people. When I visit schools, either on my own or as part of the Edge, I'm always keen to get students talking about the books they like—and the ones they don't. On occasions though, getting students to admit that they read at all can be a struggle. However, ask who likes films and most people in the room will raise a hand. I have found that this can be a useful starting point for a discussion about film adaptations of books. This invariably leads to arguments—sorry, exchanges of opinions—about the best and worst screen versions, and of course the big question: which is better, the book or the film? Suddenly, students who didn't raise their hand when I asked "who likes to read?" are vociferously arguing that Perks of Being a Wallflower the book, is miles better than, Perks of Being a Wallflower the movie.

So, in the hope of sparking such a discussion online, here is a list of ten film adaptations and a brief word on each from me. I’d be delighted to hear your thoughts on any of the films I have offered, whether you agree or disagree, and of course, please add your own titles to the list in the comments box at the end of this post.

1. Holes (Louis Sachar)—I quite liked the film, but as this book is as close to perfect as I think it's possible to get, it had a lot to live up to.

2. The Perks of Being a Wallflower (Stephen Chbosky)—Watching the film made me want to read the book, which can't be a bad thing. This was a very popular novel amongst some of our guest bloggers here on the Edge, so I'd be interested to know what people thought of the film, if they read the book first. It is worth noting that the author himself wrote the screenplay and directed the movie.

3. It's Kind of a Funny Story (Ned Vizzini)—I really like this film, and again bought the book as a result, but so far have struggled to get beyond the first few pages. For some reason I didn't connect with the voice on the page as well as I did with the character in the movie.

4. Billy Elliot (Lee Hall/Melvin Burgess)—This started life as a very good film and has gone on to be a very successful stage show, but I think the novel version by Melvin Burgess does a superb job of translating the story onto the page. As far as I remember, the book matches the film scene for scene, keeping the same grit and urgency, and Burgess' use of multiple first person narrators is really effective in keeping the emotional storyline centre stage.)

5. The Princess Bride (William Goldman)—This is one of my favourite films—a work of genius. However, I know I'm not alone in finding the book something of a disappointment by comparison. One of those times when the film is better than the book that inspired it.

6. Hugo (Brian Selznick)—This one is interesting because the original book (The Invention of Hugo Cabret) is highly illustrated. There are no words for the first forty pages, which makes the opening very reminiscent of a movie storyboard, a technique that is used throughout.

7. Harry Potter (JK Rowling)—You can't argue with the phenomenal success of these books, but I have to admit I prefer the films, especially the early ones. The world and characters that Rowling creates were begging for the big screen treatment. Watching one of the early Harry Potters has become a pre-Christmas ritual in our house.

8. Scott Pilgrim vs The World (Bryan Lee O'Malley)—I had to include this simply because it's one of my favourite films, inspired by one of my favourite series of comic books. I struggle to find fault with either, but maybe there are those of you out there who would disagree.

9. The Hunger Games (Suzanne Collins)—I thought the first two books especially, were superb. I was worried the films wouldn't be able to do the books justice. My jury is still out on that one, but what do you think?

10. Stand by Me (Stephen King)—Deciding which Stephen King story to include was tricky, as so many of his books have found their way onto the screen with varying degrees of success. I think this one worked well, and is a good adaptation of a fine novella called The Body. Which Stephen King would you have picked?

I hope my list has got you talking—if you are currently ranting in disbelief over the films I left out, or pointing a finger at the screen shouting "how could he say that!", please let me know by leaving a comment below. This is just a starter for ten (there's another one!)—it would be great to compile a longer list for the Edge archives.

Thanks for watching!

Waiting for Gonzo by Dave Cousins has yet to be optioned for a movie deal, however it does already have its own soundtrack and accompanying music videos …

Writing Badly by Guest Author Conrad Mason

Hello Edge readers, and thank you to the Edge for having me! I thought I'd write about one of the most important steps I took towards becoming a published author: writing badly.

It's well known that many authors get through several 'drawer novels' before they finish one that's fit to be published. I have drawer novels too, except that none of mine are longer than a few paragraphs. I've started hundreds of stories, but for years I never got further than the first page.

The trouble was that I was so determined to write beautiful prose that I never got anywhere. If you spend a quarter of an hour crafting each sentence, how can you ever finish a 300-page book? I had no idea how the professionals did it. Presumably they had some special skill that I lacked. 

Then I read a book called How To Write A Novel by John Braine. It's got some startling pieces of advice in it, some of which I've chosen to ignore ('try not to get married or permanently entangled before your novel is finished'). But overall it's the most inspiring book about writing that I have ever read (and I include On Writing by Stephen King in that – although that's also wonderful).

Here's the epiphany bit: 'With the first draft all that matters is writing the maximum number of words.'

It felt dangerously illicit – was I really allowed to obsess over word count and throw quality out of the window? I had to find out. I set myself a goal of at least 300 words a day, every day, and I kept writing. No checking back. No obsessing over details. No stopping, no matter what. There were times I lost my way, but I just carried on, writing bad sentences and even bad scenes in the knowledge that I'd go back and fix them later. The editor part of my brain was screaming at me all the way, but I ignored it. John Braine had set me free!

Of course, what I got at the end was a mess. Half-formed characters, awful prose, plotlines going nowhere... But that didn't matter because it was 50,000 words of mess. Something that I could edit, and hone, and turn into a novel.

I think the problem before was that I had been trying to write and edit at the same time – and for me, separating those two processes made all the difference. In the first draft I allowed my ideas to come tumbling out as fast as possible, no matter how incoherent they were; then in the second draft I picked them apart and put them back together again.

So to this day, if I'm ever struggling to write well, I just write badly instead. I'd rather do that than write nothing at all.

The Demon's Watch by Conrad Mason is out now in hardback, published by David Fickling Books. 

And rather well written it is too ….

Follow @conradwrites on Twitter and see The Demon's Watch trailer at www.conrad-mason.com