Mr Hat

A couple of weeks ago, I wrote an article about writing after a few beers, and what I regurgitated, was actually quite good when I read it back the day after (original article here).

Well, I am pleased to say that it took just three weeks to write my latest horror novel "Mr Hat" which is a touch under 80,000 words. Unlike some writers, my second drafts tend to be longer than the first because I convert the story "telling" into the story "showing". Regardless, three weeks isn't too bad an effort to write a novel while working full time, having interviews, finishing a diploma, full family life, almost buying a house, although I reckon I can halve the time it takes to write a novel. My problem has always been finalising the damn thing. I get too picky. My first two or three novels had to be scrapped because I over-analysed them what did I learn? Very little.

So, to the re-read to straighten out and start showing the story, then back to my new novel, "A Place Beyond". This writing game is so much fun!

Define Horror

horror
• noun 1 an intense feeling of fear, shock, or disgust. 2 a thing causing such a feeling. 3 intense dismay. 4 informal a bad or mischievous person, especially a child.
— ORIGIN Latin, from horrere ‘shudder, (of hair) stand on end’.
- Compact Oxford English Dictionary

Let us look at, “an intense feeling of fear, shock, or disgust”. This definition implies that the fear, shock, or disgust must be felt, ie, without feeling either fear, shock or disgust, there is no horror. So what type of feeling should we look for to understand what horror is, exactly?

There are seven senses a writer can use, six for characters: the first five are organic (hear, see, touch, smell, taste). The sixth is the character’s internal feelings and thought processes. Also, a writer can describe a good looking woman from the viewpoint of a red blooded male, and the way in which she is described will give us a feel for whether she is liked or not: “Molten red hair flowing down her shoulders” gives us a different impression than, “hair the colour of madness shivering around her face”, or, “red hair warmed by the sun and coloured like the petals from a summer’s rose”.

These descriptions however, are not what the character feels, but what we are perceiving the character is feeling. It is the seventh sense. So is horror about how we perceive things to be rather than what we feel them to be? Perhaps it would be more apt for the definition of horror to be, “an intense perception of fear, shock, or disgust”.

Literature is an excellent source of perception. I think the trick is to let the reader understand what horrors the character feels, but more importantly, to try impart that horror through the pages so it is the reader, and not the character, who is horrified. Articulating a suffering is different from showing what the character is suffering from. Be telepathic.

Back to our definition, “an intense feeling of fear, shock, or disgust”. It is not the character that the above is intended for, but for the reader. The character is not horrified. It is the reader’s perception about what is going on. Let me give examples.

A man with a machete in the middle of a city gives a different perception than the same man in the middle of a jungle. Cutting off a leg to save a life on a battlefield is completely different from amputating a leg. The same premise exists, but understanding the differences is part of this perception. What if the person who is having the leg amputated is conscious and being held down by twelve children? – Different again.

Horror is not what happens or even how it happens, but how we perceive it happening through story-showing. Everything we do is perceived in some way. Feelings are either organic or internalised emotions. Perception, however, is a cognitive process which uses our mental faculties through the page to internalise these intense feelings of fear, shock, or disgust. As horror is based on an individual perception, so it is apt to be aware that horror means a different thing for us all.

Handling Rejection

I have read many books on writing and heard from editors from different countries about my attitude towards handling rejections of short stories. I want to share these experiences with you here.

Some of you may have had stories accepted or rejected for publication. Others may wish to start writing and submitting short stories. I hope what I have to say appeals to both audiences.

There is one basic fact about writing: you will have stories rejected, for most of us, much more than having them accepted. I measure my tenacity as a writer on how I handle rejection. It could be the difference between having a writing career and wishing I had one.

ejection isn’t a matter of taking advice on the chin. It is what you do with it. A boxer doesn’t like to get hit. They learn from it so they understand why they were hit in the first place, and build their skills in attack and defence so they don’t get hit again. Invariably, they will, no matter how high their skill level. It is the same for writers.

As a writer, you will get hit, as sure as you will get wet in the rain. A writer who receives criticism with a rejection slip is lucky. In my personal experience, there are three levels of rejection with the fourth being the acceptance:

Stage 1 – Rejection ‘No thanks … it doesn’t fit’
Stage 2 – Rejection with personal but general comments ‘I liked … I didn’t like …’
Stage 3 – Rejection with critique/some editorial work

Then, of course, are the idiots of the world, those mightier-than-thou editors who throw you comments which are nothing short of lunacy.

Writing is a self-improvement program. It is a constant intellectual and creative evolution I believe all writers endure. If an editor is kind enough to send through rejection comments, then take them on board. Work with those comments. Make your craft better. Don't whine because you disagree.

One must take into account editorial style when digesting these comments. What is good for the goose is not necessarily good for the gander. Like writers, editors have different styles and guides. They may have certain expectations but they only want to publish the best. If an editor doesn’t like your story, the probability that the readers won’t like it is high.

So: how do you handle rejection?

Thank the editor for their time. Theyread your work adn they weren't paid for it. Some may take time out to give comments to improve your story, so improve it, move on, and submit it to the next market on your list.

If you handle rejection badly, try and see it from the editor’s viewpoint. They receive hundreds (perhaps thousands) of stories for thirty or less slots. If your work isn’t the best it can be, you won’t make it in. Even the best stories sometimes don’t get in for no other reason than space limitations.

For one particular anthology, I submitted thirteen stories until I was accepted. The editor was kind enough to give comments on some of them. For one of the stories, the editor suggested I expand on the ideas because the story did they little justice. I took that comment on board, and it is a novel in progress.

Many (if not all) famous authors have been rejected. I understand Harry Potter was rejected over a course of eight years. Some receive hundreds or thousands of rejections.

The reason you were rejected was because you made a submission. Refine the rejected story and place it elsewhere. You will learn from your experiences, and the stories that follow will be better off for it. It will improve you as a writer and a person to accept criticism. All artists have their critics.

I will leave you with the ‘bottom line’ of rejection. If you don’t agree with my conclusion, perhaps you shouldn’t be writing. The conclusion? Simple.

Get used to it.

Writing drunk

I wonder how many writers like to write after a few beers, or a few six packs, and re-read it the next day and likened it to a literary drink-driving car crash.

Most Friday nights (football night, go the Broncos and the Dogs), when my wife has passed out on the lounge and doing her erupting volcano impression and the writing bug is too overwhelming, I retire to my study. I switch on the laptop and furiously type whatever the hell comes into my head, because thinking and writing when drunk just don't mesh with me. Most times, there are a few good ideas in what I write - take away value: a very good worst case scenario, but on rare occasions, there are some startling insights and superior writing.

Last week, I finished my second draft of The Evil (fucking yay for me), and wondered what the hell I could do now while it was being read. I had nothing on my mind apart from another six pack of XXXX in the fridge that threatened to go off it not drunk that night, so I settled in my chair and started to write.

Six days later, I'm 22,000 words into my first draft of "Mr Hat", one of my more explicit horror novels. What I wrote when I was drunk needed tidying up - but damn, it was good writing. Wonder how much was me and how much was the muse at work.

Writing drunk? Not a good thing, but I want to write all the time regardless, drunk or not.

DVD Review: Saw V (2008)

I wonder how many horror fans agree when I say this movie lacked anything resembling what the horror genre is trying to get across?

Sure, there’s a gore factor, but at what cost? The original Saw movie was innovative and fresh. The second, disappointing, the third ridiculous, the fourth so forgettable I forgot it already, and the fifth, a complete disaster, and one I wish I could forget. I am uncertain why they are still pumping Saw movies out.

Similar to Saw 2, a group of people are trapped and have to find their way out. They need to help each other and suffer a relatively small cost to themselves and forget all urges to kill each other. Meanwhile, Saw’s newest recruit is setting traps of his own – can he take over where John left?

With a predictability factor that’s as flat line as a corpse’s pulse, average acting, and a plot that seems to be written on the fly, Saw 5 is a miserable excuse for a movie – never mind a horror movie. I’m still at loggerheads with a few people about Brit, played by Julie Benz, who I think played Darla in the “Buffy the Vampire Slayer” movies, which was the most interesting part of this movie.

The film tries to make sense of some of the preceding movies, but what makes even less sense, is why the film was made.

So much horror in the world. So little investment in obtaining large audiences.

The Macabre Mind of Charles Dickens

A Christmas Carol is arguably one of the most famous pieces of ghost fiction in literature, but not many people understand the influence of the supernatural over the works of Charles Dickens, and his use of the macabre in his everyday writing.

For anybody who has avoided Dickens for the mere fact they think his novels are ‘classic literature’ - please, don’t be fooled. I thought the same when I was at school and I never understood with such ‘classics’ why we are taught to regurgitate opinions that have been handed down for generations (there’s more about this in my previous article 'Horror and I'.

If you have never read Dickens’s ghost stories, you’re in for a huge surprise. The first ghost short story I read of his was called ‘Captain Murder and the Devil’s Bargain’. To this day, the storyline stays with me. There is a brilliance to his work that still shines 150 years later.

There are two parts to this story. The first is about Captain Murder who takes brides and chops off their heads, makes a pie and eats them. The second describes the devil’s role in the Chips family history, buying their soul with goods that include a talking rat. Dickens includes a small rhyme from the devil that impresses upon the reader that, as sure as the sun sets, so will he have the latest in the Chips family.

When reading Dickens’s ghost stories, one finds there is no lethargy to the characters or the plot. Many stories carry a deal of repetitive behaviour which influences the story long after it has been read, including the repetitive nature of both Captain Murder and the devil in the above discussion. Another example of his repetitive authority are the ghosts in A Christmas Carol.

I don’t see it as my role here to discuss in detail the works of Dickens. There are volumes of the stuff on the internet and in textbooks around the world. My role here is to simply identify the impact of horror on Dickens, and the impact of that experience in his writings. I want you to consider that the depths of Dickens’s writing in the macabre is not as well documented as it should be – not only in short stories, but also in his novels.

His characters give us good examples of the use of the horror genre. In David Copperfield, you will identify with names such as Mr Murdstone (murder – stone) and Mr Micawer (macabre); Magwitch in Great Expectations and Mr Cripples in Little Dorrit. The themes of his literature are not usually horrific but are found rather in the carpentry of his writing. I further consider his literature becomes darker later in his career. Many of Dickens’s villains are interwoven with the work of the macabre, melodrama and stereotypes although only the latter two of these are studied in detail.

Dickens had many influences in his life that led him down the path of the macabre. One of the most notable was his nurse maid Mary (‘Mercy’) Weller who used to tell him ghost stories and had a notable impact on his life. Dickens also endured a great deal of hardship in his life that forged the way his novels were written. It is this hardship which gives his writing power.

In Oliver Twist and Bleak House, there are resonances that typify his personal experiences of trauma and opinions of the vulgarity of life which taught him through many bitter experiences. One of his most popular short stories, ‘The Signalman’, appeared a year after he was involved in a major train crash in Kent, England, and he personalized the story by placing it in first person point of view. There are various resources on the internet to read the story for free, including this one at Page by Page Books.

I would like to finish this brief article by indicating that Dickens never completed his final novel, ‘The Mystery of Edwin Drood’. An apt title, considering that the ending of the novel will be, and will always be, a mystery unto itself. Considering the paranormal flavour to his works, this final novel proved to be a very apt title!

There are incalculable sources on the internet for sources on Dickens. I have considered many of them and come up with a short list I hope you will find valuable:

Read about Charles Dickens on Wikipedia
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Charles_Dickens

A list of Charles Dickens Downloads at Project Gutenberg
http://www.gutenberg.org/browse/authors/d#a37

David Perdue’s Charles Dickens Page
http://charlesdickenspage.com/index.html