Posts Tagged: outlines

Writing Noir & Crime Fiction: It’s All In The Voice

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I write noir.  To me, noir is all about voice.  A lot of noir writers go to great lengths to imitate the voices of the greats.  I have neither the memory, the critical analysis skills, nor the patience to do that. So my voice is, by default, my own.  I consider my work neo-noir because it adds a certain psychological and emotional realism and depth that the classics lack but today's readers have come to expect. I wrote my first novel, Go Down Hard, and am writing my novel-in-progress in first-person present tense, which gives the work a feeling of urgency.  My novella and the short story that spawned it, Dead End (which was just nominated for an Anthony Award), are in third-person... more

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Writing Blind – To Outline or Not to Outline

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Novelist John Connolly has an interesting approach to writing his highly-acclaimed novels: My first draft tends to be a little rough. There will be inconsistencies of dialogue and character. Some characters will appear in the early stages only to disappear later, their failure to manifest themselves once again left entirely unexplained. Some things seem like good ideas at the start, but quickly prove to be distractions from the main thrust of the book, and as soon as that realisation hits me I tend to let those elements slide. I don't fret too much about how untidy the text may be (although, in my darker moments, I wonder what might happen if I didn't live to finish the book and... more

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